Colorado Avalanche: Tyson Barrie is Confident in the Team’s Play
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie spoke about the team’s current confident mood during a post-practice presser.
The Colorado Avalanche are finishing the season the way they started it — strong. In the first two months, the team played to a 15-6-5 record.
Then the middle stanza of the season happened, and we’d just as soon forget about it. However, in the last 17 games (dating back to March) the Avs have a 10-5-2 record.
The two combined, along with the points they managed to grind out in the middle, are good enough for a seat at the playoff table. At the time of writing, Colorado was in possession of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Fun fact: Last season the Avs secured a playoff berth with the #17 spot in the NHL because the team above them, Florida, didn’t have a good enough record to make the Eastern Conference. For right now, Colorado is again #17. I’d say sorry Montreal, but I’m not sorry.
Defenseman Tyson Barrie credits the team’s confidence in the last couple weeks:
“I know there’s some teams that are kind of sputtering in and they’re not super confident in their game, and we’re really confident right now.”
Well, the confidence certainly is showing in Barrie himself. In 77 games, the rover has matched his career-best in goals (14) and exceeded his career-best in points (59). He has now matched the points total that Hockey Hall of Famer Ray Bourque made in the 2000-01 Stanley Cup season.
Heady stuff, eh? I think that calls for a little Barrie highlight:
You know what, I was on the Trade Barrie train because I thought we could get so much for him. However, unless a team is willing to go all Ottawa Senators on us (and that will never happen again), we’d better just keep our 27-year-old treasure.
Anyway, Barrie, who wore the A in captain Gabriel Landeskog‘s absence, sees the team carrying that confidence into the playoffs:
“We’re going to treat it like we’ve been treating the last 10. We’re going to go in and try and play our style and keep this thing rolling.”
As Barrie points out — and as we all know — Colorado’s style is build on speed. However, he adds:
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Ain’t that the truth? Nathan MacKinnon is back to his electric ways. He joined the elite club of 40-goal scorers this season, which also marked his 400th point. He also exceeded last year’s points total with his 98th point, an assist on Erik Johnson‘s overtime-winning goal against Winnipeg.
What’s been amazing about the last month is that at alternating time, Colorado has been without MacKinnon’s wingmen. First Landeskog went down with a shoulder injury, then Mikko Rantanen suffered a torso injury. Both have also had career seasons.
Landeskog has returned, and Rantanen is skating in red non-contact.
Next. Barrie Goal that Almost Wasn't. dark
The Colorado Avalanche have just one more regular season game, against the San Jose Sharks. Hopefully they can secure a win and take their hot play into the playoffs.