The Flyers closed out their quick road trip last night in Pittsburgh, and the closed it out with something of a whimper, delivering another largely disorganized showing on the way to a 6-3 loss and an extension of their losing streak to five games. It was a game from which there were not a lot of positives to pull, but the sure exception to that was the play of Denver Barkey. Coming off of his first healthy scratching of the season — the first of his professional career — all eyes were turned to Barkey to see how he would respond, and he very quickly showed an ability to turn the page and deliver quite an eye-catching performance.
Standing out
This was also a game in which, in truth, it was not the most difficult to stand out in a positive light, but Barkey’s performance against the Penguins was one which would have been still quite notable, regardless of what the other skaters were doing around him. And that impact was quite immediate — Barkey was able to create a good look on his first shift of the game, but from there the Flyers looked like they might be falling into a tailspin early in this one, as they took a penalty inside the first minute of play, got scored on, and then followed that up with another penalty taken not even two minutes later, but on the other side of that kill, Barkey was able to not only get right back to the attack, but to use his speed to draw a penalty (and create two more quick looks for himself on the subsequent delayed penalty. Of course, the Flyers didn’t convert on this power play, but it still served as a much needed pause to the Penguins’ momentum, before things got out of hand on them early.
And in a game in which possession at 5-on-5 was a bit of a mixed bag, Barkey’s line was dominant. By the numbers, Barkey graded out the best on an individual level, as the Flyers put up 80 percent of the shot attempts and created 98.67 percent of the Expected Goals while he was on the ice. The impacts for his line collectively were just as strong — when all three of him, Sean Couturier, and Matvei Michkov were out there together, they averaged out to a 77.27 percent share of shot attempts, and a 93.68 percent share of Expected Goals.
The Michkov connection
And given how dominant Barkey’s line was from a possession standpoint, it’s no surprise that they were also able to contribute to the majority of the team’s scoring on the night. It was a slick bit of passing from Barkey which set up Nick Seeler for his goal, and he doubled down on those impacts on their third goal of the night, threading a pass through to Michkov for a much-needed conversion.
And this budding connection between Barkey and Michkov was a particular standout in this game. The two were showing some immediate chemistry, and their creative playmaking feeding off of each other nicely. And, what’s more, after Barkey was blown up on a hit in the neutral zone in the third period — he bounced right back up and seemed no worse for wear — it was Michkov who stepped in immediately to fight Blake Lizotte in his defense. And while this was not a fight in which Michkov really got the better of it, even more critically, it was a meaningful gesture in defense of a new teammate and linemate, and that will surely go a long way.
Load management
Now, one of the bigger questions wrapped up in all of this is whether Barkey was able to deliver such a standout performance in this one because he was the only player in the Flyers’ lineup with fresh legs, or whether this was a situation where things were getting a little rich for him heading into that scratching, and the night off allowed him to quickly hit the reset button and get things moving in the right direction again in short order. The outcome still remains the same as far as this game is concerned, but this will all but certainly see some implications in how he’s managed through the rest of the season.
Assuming Barkey is here to stay for even the medium-term — and based on his play on the whole, he certainly deserves to be — there might be some more strategic decision making coming along the way, which could see Barkey either rested more consistently on the first half of back-to-backs — of which there are six more on the schedule between now and the end of the regular season — or else just watched closely for a more any more precipitous slippage of play which might require a more complete reset like this.
All in all, though, Barkey delivered just the game that the coaching staff was hoping to see from him — there was no apparent bad feelings or spiraling of play as a result of a scratching, but rather he approached the game with the intent of making the most of the next game he was to be given, and showed a real maturity for such a young professional along the way.
All stats via Natural Stat Trick and the NHL.
