The New York Islanders want to keep the wheels on the bus, and making Mathew Barzal a healthy scratch for a small mistake makes the team's mindset clear as they try to return to playoff status.
The New York Islanders are the last-place team in the Eastern Conference going up against the tough Carolina Hurricanes, but they chose to keep top forward Mathew Barzal out of the lineup on Thursday.
Barzal’s offense: being late for a team bus. Not the end of the world, right?
But Isles coach and Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy told the New York Post the decision to scratch Barzal was made with the well-being of the team concept at the front of management’s collective mind. And he's right.
“That’s the culture of our team,” Roy said. “And we made the decision not to play him (Thursday). And Barzy’s not happy, he doesn’t feel good about it. He respects the decision; he understands it. He was really good about it.
“Like I said to him, it happened to me when I was in Colorado. Different way, but (I) missed a practice, missed two games. That’s the culture of our team, we believe in it. But he’s good about it. He’s very good about it.”
Indeed, if Barzal wants to be regarded as a leader in the Islanders dressing room, he will own his mistake, accept his punishment and try to forget all about it.
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Islanders GM Mathieu Darche, Roy and the rest of the Isles' braintrust made the team of ultimate importance, not the player. That’s a foundational part of team-building, and it isn’t anything any player can turn up their nose at and reject.
If the Islanders have any hope of getting even remotely close to a Stanley Cup playoff spot, they’re going to need all hands on deck. Not having Barzal’s skills in the lineup for a game will hurt, but in the bigger picture, enforcing team rules is more important to the bottom line.
In a way, it's promising to see that no player on the Islanders is above accountability. This team still has promising talent, such as Barzal, Bo Horvat, Anders Lee and 2025 first overall pick Matthew Schaefer. They also have Ilya Sorokin, who's typically a top-level goaltender but is struggling this season with an .868 save percentage and 3.75 goals-against average. Having the players on the same page as management with a clear, disciplined mindset will help each other get back into the playoffs in the long run.
So while it would’ve been easy for the Isles to look past Barzal’s mistake and let him move forward without any penalty, the better decision was to treat him the way they’d treat any Isles player – and to show them that expectations on players aren’t to be trifled with. No matter whether the Islanders rally from this point on or their struggles continue, it was crucial to send a message to Barzal and his teammates.
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