VANCOUVER – The first time Mathew Barzal competed on the ice at Rogers Arena, he was 13 years old and his Burnaby Winter Club bantam team had won a contest to participate in the Vancouver Canucks’ annual skills competition.
Naturally, Barzal was selected for the fastest skater event. He remembers he completed a lap in about 14.5 seconds, which would have been within a second of Canuck Mason Raymond’s winning time in 2011 of 13.63 seconds.
His dad, Mike Barzal, just remembers how determined his son was.
"For sure, all the kids were nervous," Mike said Monday, which was like a holiday for the Barzals. "But once you got to the line and they said go, you’d just go. His skating has always been good since he was young.
"Mathew has always been driven. Whether he’s playing a crib game or a basketball game, he wants to win."
But even for a guy who has always been able to fly, the speed with which Mat Barzal, 20, is ascending the National Hockey League is both breathtaking and surprising.
He leads the New York Islanders and NHL rookies in scoring with 67 points in 66 games. And that is significant because Islanders captain John Tavares is a superstar and the rookie trying to catch him is Canucks standout Brock Boeser.
There was about double the normal game-day media at the morning skates to cover the "showdown" Monday night between Barzal and Boeser, who just turned 21 and leads all rookies with 29 goals but is 12 points behind the Islander in the scoring race for NHL freshmen.
No matter how much people hype the Calder Trophy race, the rookie of the year award is Barzal’s to lose. Unless Boeser can close within four or five points of Barzal over the final month of the regular season, the Canuck’s advantage in goals (29 to 18) won’t matter.
Yet even Islanders coach Doug Weight told reporters on Monday that he is more surprised by what Barzal is doing than what Boeser has accomplished.
"I had a lot of interest in Brock the last couple of years," Weight said, explaining he tracked Boeser as part of his assistant coach duties. "I felt like he could translate… quickly with that shot and the way he saw the ice.
"With Mathew, I think he went back last year (to junior) and we had some questions. He’s so good, he’s such a great skater with so much ability to handle the puck and create space that you worried about if that league was good enough for him. (But) he played a better game for his team.
"I think when you’re talking about Mathew and Brock, any young player when they’re able to come in at their age and make that immediate impact and become an impact player on their team, you don’t see that all the time at that age and that’s obviously why we are having this discussion. These two guys are pretty special players."
[snippet id=3636897]
The Islanders returned Barzal to junior hockey’s Seattle Thunderbirds last season after only two NHL games. While Boeser was struggling through a wrist injury at the University of North Dakota, Barzal lit up the Western Hockey League with 79 points in 41 games.
The players first met one another at the NHL draft combine in 2015. Barzal was selected 16th by the Islanders that June, seven picks before the Canucks grabbed Boeser.
Barzal’s goal this season was merely to make the Islanders’ roster, then their lineup. He never expected this.
"I was upset," he said of his failed first attempt with the Islanders. It was my first opportunity in the NHL and I didn’t grasp it as well as I probably wanted to. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me from being a better player and getting better. There wasn’t really a day where I thought I was better than the league.
"I don’t know if I came (into this season) thinking about points or anything. Honestly, my first goal was just to get on the team."
Barzal is averaging 17:33 of ice time. He has posted three five-point games — the first rookie to do that in 100 years.
Asked if he’s tracking the rookie scoring race, Boeser said: "I try not to focus on that. But when he’s putting up big points every other game, it’s hard not to notice."
What impresses Boeser about Barzal?
"Everything really," the Canuck said. "Just how good a skater he is, how skilled he is, how good he sees the ice. He’s a 200-foot guy, too. He has all the assets to be a tremendous player."
Regardless of the Calder and playoff races, tonight represents a triumph for Barzal, who grew up in the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam. His appearance in the Canucks’ skills competition seven years ago came a few months before Vancouver’s march to the Stanley Cup final, where it lost in seven games to the Boston Bruins.
Barzal said he painted his face Canucks colours and flew the team flag for Game 7.
"It’s funny," he said. "I live with (teammate) Dennis Seidenberg now. He was in that game but he was with the Bruins."
[snippet id=3918715]
Barzal made it home to Coquitlam for dinner Sunday night. There’s still a Sidney Crosby poster in his bedroom.
"It’s just cool for myself having so much family and friends at the game and having so many people… I knew growing up… people I played with or went to school with messaging me and saying they’re coming to the game," Barzal said. "I’m going to try to keep my eyes off the crowd; I don’t want to make eye contact with anyone I know."
That may be difficult. His cheering section will include over 100 relatives and friends there to watch the guy rocketing towards the top of the NHL.
[relatedlinks]
