Florida’s Finnish captain is building up from problems in the playoffs Alexander Barkov27, around a narrative that the attacker from Tampere would certainly not like.
However, the scoreboard and the statistics lines build their own undeniable story, and early on Monday morning, another chapter was added to this story. Florida fell and so did Barkovki with his people without much resistance.
0+0, -1 and starts 4/12.
Of course, cold statistical data is only one part of the game. In a broader perspective, the Tappara-bred has won more than 55% of his starts in the playoffs and has done a lot of right things in the rink, both with and without the game tool. There were seven shots on goal from Barkov’s stick between Sunday and Monday.
There is a company.
However, Barkov will not be paid twelve million dollars for the current season just for trying.
Two worlds
The season of the Florida Panthers is at stake Finnish time on Thursday night against Boston. If Boston wins, Florida will be eliminated from the NHL playoffs.
For Barkov, right now it’s purely about making a result. There is no reason to overreact to individual matches, but Barkov has disappeared from the picture for the second spring in a row. Exactly one year ago, there was a completely similar discussion around the player – where does the glory of the regular season disappear in the playoffs?
Of course, the quality of the team, teammates, coaching, injuries and even luck have their own role, but at the same time, the situation is getting to the point where it is no longer possible to whitewash the problems.
Barkov’s balance from the ongoing playoffs is two second assists. With five against five, his team’s number one center hasn’t scored a single point yet.
And now fast-forward to last year: the balance in the four-game, season-ending Tampa series was 0+1 and -5.
When you look at Barkov’s stats, the difference between the regular season and the playoffs is confusingly large.
Where Barkov has registered 0.95 power points per game in his career in the regular season, in the playoffs the same figure drops to 0.76. Barkov has amassed a handsome 90 plus marks in his career spanning more than 600 matches, but in the playoffs the balance is a freezing nine goals.
The biggest difference is in the firing powers. The hitting accuracy of almost 14 percent in the regular season has dropped to just over five in the playoffs. In the previous 24 playoff games, Barkov has scored only four hits.
Barkov has scored only 0.36 points per hour played during the last four playoff seasons. According to Finns, it is enough for 18th place. Artturi Lehkonen the number rotates by 0.9, Sebastian Ahon and Mikko Rantanen numbers with 0.8 hams.
Why so?
There can be – and certainly are – many reasons for the trend.
One of the biggest reasons is the classless level of Florida’s possession game. This discussion also took place a year ago. Then the coach Andrew Brunette mixed the palette once and for all by playing with five attackers at best, but changing the coach hasn’t taken the team to the promised land of playing with superiority.
Believe it or not, the Panthers have made 42 2 field goal attempts between this and last spring.
The balance of the superiority game is catastrophic and shameful in every way, when you take into account the kind of puck jugglers the team has found in the past two springs.
Here, of course, Barkov’s leadership is reflected. Barkov is more a part of the problem and goes to the bottom with the rest of the team than if he is the one who solves the problem and pulls the others behind him. Barkov, who carries the letter C on his chest, must get to the other side of the situation – be part of the solution, not the problem.
One factor behind Barkov’s otherwise difficult season is a kind of diesel-likeness.
For one reason or another, Barkov’s performance has lacked the final sharpness throughout the season. The top hockey player of the second generation certainly hits the scoreboard in the regular season world without even the biggest changes, but the situation is different in the playoffs. The change of rhythm needed for spring has not yet been seen.
Where’s the feeling?
From Barkov, we would like to see the fire of emotions stronger more often. Of course, each player plays through his own personality, but especially in the position of captain, one would hope that the Finnish star would bring out a positive – why not even a little negative – passion for performance and a need-to-achieve mentality, even if it goes against the basic gentlemanly nature.
Now almost all ignition operations in the ranks of Florida seem to remain Matthew Tkachuk on the shoulders and, as a team from Florida, the taste of lukewarm milk too often in the mouth.
Criticism towards Florida’s Finnish captain is always intensifying on both sides of the big water and it’s starting to be razor sharp – at the same time, it’s definitely in place. The side slide has gone on for too long. Aleksander Barkov is the hugely paid captain and number one player of a Stanley Cup-seeking team.
The expectations are accordingly.
There is still time for this spring, but the level seen now leads to the familiar result from previous springs.
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