Colorado Avalanche: Tyson Barrie Goal that Almost Wasn’t

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie made history on a goal that was almost credited to another player, Sven Andrighetto.

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie scored an historic goal in the game against the Vegas Golden Knights last night. With that goal, he’s earned 73 in the NHL, all with the Avalanche. That means he’s officially surpassed Sandis Ozolinsh.

Barrie now has the most goals by a defenseman in franchise history. Not just Avs history — franchise history, so going back to 1972.

And the goal almost didn’t get credited to our rover.

The play started with a faceoff win by Carl Soderberg. While the NBCSN announcers were rambling on about Connor “Whatever” McDavid, Barrie took possession of the puck. He dangled it for a bit while the announcers switched to Nikita Kucherov.

And then, Tyson Barrie did what he’s mostly just been doing this season. He unleashed a slapshot. And he scored.

Now, this goal was always going to count. There was no reason for it to get disallowed — no chance at either goalie interference or offsides, and that’s a miracle in this day and age.

However, Sven Andrighetto was providing a screen, as was likely his assignment. As the puck flew past him, he made a movement with his stick. So, while the NBCSN announcers, for a moment done talking about players from other teams, declared the goal Barrie’s milestone marker, initially the officials credited it to Andrighetto.

Here’s the goal:

Now, an Avs goal is an Avs goal. We don’t care who scores as long as the man is wearing burgundy and blue. Indeed, Gabriel Bourque can score the game-winning goal like he did last night and we’d be just fine with the situation:

That was Bourque’s second goal of the season. No joke, we’re at Game 77, Bourque’s 49th, and that’s only his second goal of the season. Sixth point of the year. I mean, I don’t really want to point out that rookie defenseman Ryan “4:11 and Scratched” Graves has more goals than Gourque, but he does.

Anyway, moving on, Barrie’s historic goal was initially credited to Andrighetto as a tip-in. The NHL attempts to be fair, though, so they reviewed the play. And, ultimately, they saw that Andrighetto had not, in fact, touched the puck.

Goal to Tyson Barrie. History is made.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Barrie is a polarizing player. He’s a defenseman, but defense is the first part of his game to exit when times get tough. Yet he’s scored 73 goals and earned 231 assists in his tenure as a Colorado Avalanche player. And that puts him in the annals of history.

We don’t know what the future of a player like Tyson Barrie will be. He’s perfect trade bait. Yet the kind of offense he brings to the Colorado Avalanche will be missed. I guess for now we just appreciate what advantages he brings to the table.