He’s been one of the best offensive defencemen in the NHL this season with 32 points to his name, but it’s time the Edmonton Oilers give Tyson Barrie a night off.
It’s a concept that may seem a little crazy given he’s second in the league in scoring from defencemen. He’s only two points back from Victor Hedman for the league lead, after all.
Over the last four games, however, Tyson Barrie has had one of his toughest stretches of the season. It started last Saturday night against Toronto and while he scored two points, he also had an incredibly scary moment getting accidently kicked in the face with Auston Matthews’ boot.
The following night against Montreal, Barrie got taken down on the ice hard twice in the final 10 minutes trying to shake off a bothered lower leg.
Then last night against Calgary, he got cross checked in the back in the first period crashing into Mike Smith.
All the while, Barrie’s been posting some of his worst underlying numbers of the season. In the last three games at 5×5, he’s controlled less than 37 percent of the shot attempts and less than 15 percent of the expected goals. That, while scoring no points.
Last night he had some ghastly turnovers that included springing Matthew Tkachuk for a breakaway goal against. Chasing him down from five long strides away, Barrie showed some frustration breaking his stick over the net.
There’s clearly been something off, but it’s hard to put a finger on it. Is he feeling a little banged up from one of those collisions last week, or is this just a small stretch of bad hockey in what’s otherwise been a solid season? It’s hard to say.
Despite that, though, Edmonton sees Montreal Monday and Ottawa both Wednesday and Friday and I don’t think it would be far fetched for him to sit one or two of those games. If Barrie is banged up, it gives him a chance to catch a little extra rest. If that’s not the case, he’s been doing more harm than good when on the ice.
Edmonton has some other young defencemen in their lineup who have shown they can step up. William Lagesson, Caleb Jones and Evan Bouchard have all shown flashes this year, while Ethan Bear is making a serious case to see a more significant spike in his ice time.
Dave Tippett and his coaching staff need to do their due diligence in icing the best possible line up every night and while he’s having a solid season as a whole, Barrie’s not helping the team right now.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.