Go to the net. Ivan Barbashev has the ability and when he focuses on this task, he’s a handful.
After going three games without a shot on goal, Barbashev came into Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers with a simple plan: Get to the net.
Barbashev scored an early goal from just outside the crease off a Jack Eichel rebound and then set a screen on Flyers goalie Carter Hart on Shea Theodore’s winning goal late in the third period.
“To be honest, that’s what I’m supposed to do,” Barbashev said during an intermission interview on the Golden Knights radio broadcast Tuesday. “I didn’t do it in the last few games. But I did it in that period and I got rewarded and it’s a really good feeling."
Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy concurred.
“He was more involved. I liked his game. He was around the front of the net,” said Cassidy. “Even the game-winning goal, he’s right on top of the goalie. If he’s not there, Hart probably makes the save. It would have been a lot easier on the goalie if Ivan isn’t there.”
Kolesar wears an A: We talked about this on both the radio and TV broadcasts but forgot to mention it in last week’s notebook. But I like the thinking behind it so here goes even if a tad late.
Keegan Kolesar arrived at the rink in Winnipeg on Oct. 19 to find an A on his jersey.
“I’ve done it a lot over the years,” explained Cassidy. “Petro is back in Vegas so we have an opening. Koley does a lot of things for this team that go unheralded. But they are important and his teammates know it. So this is just a little recognition for what he does for the team. It’s a team building thing.”
Kolesar saw the A on his jersey and thought teammate Alec Martinez was playing a prank on him.
“Marty normally is the next guy up to wear an A when someone is hurt. And he likes to play a prank now and again. I thought he had switched jerseys. Put his in my stall. But when I looked at the name bar, it was my name. The guys teased me all night. My grandparents and my mom were in the building. Pretty cool for them to get to see it.”
Frozen Frenzy: Was it cool to have all 32 NHL teams playing on the same night? Absolutely. And the publicity bump the league got by having ESPN invested in the day/night was a large plus.
The network’s Top 10 that night featured several hockey plays and Paul Cotter’s between-the-legs beauty earned the top spot. That doesn’t happen very often. Having ESPN as a TV partner should have its benefits. Frozen Frenzy took advantage of opportunities only ESPN can provide. That’s the good. And it far outweighs any negative.
From a purely selfish perspective, spreading the games out on a weekend day would be preferable. A noon start to a game out East and then hockey all throughout the day and into the night would be terrific. But the NHL likely wouldn’t want to broadcast a 16-game smorgasbord to go up against a college football Saturday or an NFL Sunday. So they’d have to wait until football was over. And that would preclude the league from making a huge splash early in the season. Bottom line, hockey got a lot of eyeballs on a Tuesday in October. That’s not a good thing. That’s a great thing.
