With the playoff race tightening and just six games remaining, Mathew Barzal is keeping the message simple for the New York Islanders: stay positive and move forward.<\/p>\n
After back-to-back losses, including a frustrating defeat in Buffalo, Barzal made it clear there\u2019s no time to dwell on what\u2019s already happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just try to take the positives out of the Buffalo game,\u201d Barzal said. \u201cWe really don\u2019t have time to think about the Pittsburgh game or even the Buffalo game\u2026 we can only have positive energy right now with six games left.\u201d<\/p>\n
That mindset is critical as the Islanders prepare for a pivotal matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night \u2014 a game that could significantly impact their playoff positioning.<\/p>\n
Barzal pointed to moments of execution, particularly on the power play, as evidence that the team can still find its game. Adjustments against aggressive penalty kills led to cleaner puck movement and quality chances, something he believes can carry forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast night we really broke it down\u2026 used their aggression in our favor,\u201d Barzal said. \u201cIt\u2019s just quick movement\u2026 and we opened up a couple great chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than tactics, though, Barzal emphasized belief.<\/p>\n
Despite recent setbacks, the Islanders have shown throughout the season they can rise in big moments. He referenced the team\u2019s confidence \u2014 the \u201cswag\u201d head coach Patrick Roy often mentions \u2014 as something that hasn\u2019t disappeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of confidence this year in our game,\u201d Barzal said. \u201cThis team has come to play in a lot of big games this year\u2026 I expect our best.\u201d<\/p>\n
With little margin for error, the Islanders aren\u2019t looking backward.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re choosing belief, energy, and a reset \u2014 right when it matters most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the playoff race tightening and just six games remaining, Mathew Barzal is keeping the message simple for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205],"class_list":{"0":"post-537606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116338113032667398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}