It Might Just Be The New York Islanders' Year After Mat Barzal Made Two (2!!) Hole-In-Ones In One Week
Bruce Bennett. Getty Images.It's been a pretty solid offseason for the New York Islanders. It starts off with the team winning the draft lottery, and taking Matthew Schaefer with the 1st overall pick. They were also able to pick up two more picks in the first round from Montreal, which they used to draft Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson. They signed Alexander Romanov to a big extension. They signed Jonathan Drouin in free agency. They were able to land the highly coveted Russian, Maxim Shabanov, in free agency as well.
Things are definitely looking up for the Isles. But all of those moves pale in comparison to the type of mojo Mathew Barzal just injected into the organization this summer after making not one, but two aces in the same week.
You make one hole-in-one over the summer and it's a nice little story to tell the boys when you get back into town for training camp.
"Hey, Barzy. How was your summer, bud?"
"Yeah you know it's all about winning the first 5 minutes of the period, playing our brand of hockey, and being better along the boards. Oh, and also I got my first career hole-in-one. Sniffs loudly, wipes nose on jersey shoulder. So yeah pretty good summer, eh?"
But two of those things just 6 days apart? Right around the time when the course is playing as pure as it's ever been? Listen. I don't know if the New York Islanders are going to win a Stanley Cup this year. But at the very least, it would be worth throwing a quick little future on Mat Barzal winning the Hart Trophy this year. Because clearly this fella is dialed. Clearly he has a special type of juice flowing right now. Anyone who plays a ton of golf can eventually catch a lucky bounce and hole one. But twice in the same week tells me we're dealing with a different type of beast right now.
28-years-old. He's missed an entire season's worth of games over the last 3 years. He's a guy who could put up 100 assists in a season if he stays healthy and has some other weapons around him like Drouin and Shabanov. And now he's going to add a little extra swagger to his game after dropping two aces over the summer? We're going to see the best version of Mat Barzal we've ever seen this season. I'm not happy about it as a Flyers fan, but it's best to just prepare ourselves for this reality now.