Sasha Barkov, you’re ridiculous.
In the span of about five minutes, Florida’s captain put on a display of hockey skills that left jaws hanging open and eyes popping out of heads.
Offensive skills, defensive instincts, strength, awareness, endurance, intelligence… no, I’m not describing Barkov’s skills, I’m mentioning everything he showed during an astonishing run that led to the Panthers defeating the St. Louis Blues in overtime defeated Friday night.
Late in the extra session, Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Uvis Balinskis got stuck in their own ends during a long shift.
Sergei Bobrovsky came up with some big saves, but the skaters were clearly exhausted, on the ice for more than two minutes, just trying to maintain their position.
The Blues smelled blood in the water.
It was at his team’s most desperate moment that Barkov donned his cape and became Superman.
First, Barkov made an aggressive defensive play on Florida’s blue line to force Dylan Holloway back into the neutral zone.
Instead of going for a line charge, Barkov continued to chase until Holloway was all the way back in his own zone, where Barkov then pocketed and got away with the puck.
He then played a few seconds away against all three Blues players, giving his teammates time to make substitutions.
Barkov did such a good job of holding onto the puck that he ended up calling a penalty on Brayden Schenn for tripping.
“Just great moments from great players,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “Especially because he flew across the country for a week, he missed a number of games due to an illness. He was on the ice for probably two minutes before he took on the rest of their team, and those are the things that special players do, for the fans and for the other guys on the bench, to really watch in awe. It was fun to be a part of it.”
It was certainly a game-saving effort.
To hear the modest Barkov describe the piece, it didn’t sound like anything special.
“I was close to the puck, so I just tried to get it away and luckily I got it,” he said. “And then we got a power play.”
Was Barkov done there? No.
After guzzling some oxygen during a brief timeout, Barkov jumped back over the boards for the ensuing power play.
With the puck back on his stick, Barkov surveyed the scene and decided that shooting the puck was his best and last option.
He was right.
Barkov danced with the puck long enough to find just the right angle and hit a wrist shot that slipped through Joel Hofer’s arm and body and fluttered into the net.
“I think the last option was to shoot for me because I know we had a couple of shooters there and they got taken away,” he said. “I just saw the net and tried to put it in, and it went in.”
The goal capped an unreal effort from Barkov, leaving his teammates shaking their heads.
“It’s just normal, that’s what he does,” Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis said with a smile. “He’s incredible.”
Barkov now has ten goals and 32 points in 24 games this season.
Four of those goals have come in his past six appearances.
He’s playing some of the best hockey of his life right now, and his two-plus minutes of madness during overtime on Friday perfectly summed up who and what he is.
“He’s a Selke winner with incredible speed and size, but also just great hands,” Maurice said. “There just aren’t many guys in the history of the game.”
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