Where is Barkov? Panthers’ 4-2 home loss to Boston leaves Florida looking for answers | Opinion
Where’s Barky?
Where is the bark -- let alone the bite -- from the player who has been the Florida Panthers’ biggest star for 10 years? Since he was teenager from Finland who’d just turned 18?
Where’s Sasha?
Where is Aleksander Barkov?
This isn’t fair, the burden we are suggesting. But it is the obligation of greatness. It is the expectation of stars when the stage is biggest. In the playoffs.
The Panthers need a lift. They need something, after Friday night’s 4-2 home loss to Boston left Florida down 2-1 in this best-of-seven NHL playoff series entering Game 4 back home Sunday afternoon.
The Bruins, who Friday regained home-ice advantage, are here off the best regular season in hockey history. Expected to win and advance and looking the part.
But if the Panthers can stand in their way and shock the world (or at least this sport), it may take a dramatic surge from Barkov, who had whispered in three games with a total of one shot on goal --that’s singular, one shot, in three games -- until three late shots Friday when the game was out of reach.
Barkov was hardly mentioned until the desperate late flurry.
This might be the equivalent of the Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler hardly shooting and averaging 10 or so points this postseason.
Can’t have that. Not now.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a soft postseason a year ago and it was a huge reason why Florida traded him for Matthew Tkachuk, who has been great this season and scored in this series.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice was asked Friday morning about Barkov’s quiet series thus far and dodged the question in his star’s favor.
“It built from Game 1 to 2 for sure,” he said. “I’m good with his game. It’s gonna grow.”
It did not Friday. Not enough.
Off a 6-3 win in Boston to tie this 1-1 the Panthers had the momentum returning home -- momentum itself a fleeting thing up for grabs in a best-of-seven series.
They lost it fast.
The Bruins’ Taylor Hall, not a major player, made it 1-0 just 2:25 into the game, muting the home crowd before many of them had even settled in or returned from the concession stands.
In the second period Charlie Coyle deflected a shot in the crease, Cats goaltender Alex Lyon helpless to stop the carom.
By the third it was 3-0 on a deposit by Bruins star David Pastrnak.
“Pastrnak is a superstar,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery had said between periods on TV, before that goal. “And he will lead us tonight.”
(Which is what the Cats needed, and need, from Barkov.)
Nick Foligno’s score made it 4-0 as the Sunrise barn turned quiet.
The game was too far gone when Florida’s Gustav Forsling averted the shutout with a late shorthanded goal. And then when Sam Reinhart’s goal (off a Barkov assist) made the final score.
It was after Pastrnak’s goal that Maurice subbed out Lyon for veteran goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
I did not take this as scapegoating Lyon.
(“It was not a critique of Alex’s game,” said Maurice.)
I did take it as a tinge of desperation.
Because Florida, and Barkov, had too few answers against a better team asserting itself.
The Panthers tinkered with line changes to get Barkov going.
“When you’re not generating offense, you’re looking for those kind of players,” Maurice said afterward. “Coach has to find the right combination to get him going.”
Whichever goaltender starts Game 4 is not as important as whether Barkov can ignite a spark.
In NHL history teams that lose to go down 2-1 in a best-of-seven 7 win the series only 30.6 percent of the time.
That trend borne out over decades proves nothing but suggests a lot:
The pressure is on the losing team -- Florida in this case -- to hold serve at home, win Game 4 Sunday afternoon and avoid the dreaded 3-1 series hole.
And that onus would be there even if the opponent were not coming off the greatest regular season in NHL history.
“These guys aren’t bad,” reminded Maurice, of the Bruins. “I’m not sure if you guys lost sight of that because we won Game 2.”
Florida coming back is not all on one man, no.
But if the Panthers need somebody to lead right now -- and they do -- it should be Aleksander Barkov raising his stick.
This story was originally published April 21, 2023 at 10:25 PM.
