RALEIGH, N.C. — Mathew Barzal’s return to the Islanders’ lineup went about as expected Monday night, and — according to Barzal himself — maybe even a little better than that.
“I actually felt better than I thought I was going to feel, to be honest with you,” Barzal said Tuesday regarding the Islanders’ 2-1 loss to Carolina in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series. “I thought my lungs and legs felt all right.”
Barzal skated 21:12 in his first game since Feb. 18, recording two shots on net with one attempt blocked.
Though he had no points, the creativity the Islanders had missed without him was apparent, particularly in an early third-period pass to find Anders Lee down low for a prime scoring chance.
Rust was apparent in Barzal’s game early on, which was expected, but he seemed to knock if off fairly quickly.
“Our line, I thought we built our game and had plenty of looks tonight,” Lee told The Post following the game. “Just gotta get a bounce and get one to go. I thought [Barzal’s] game got stronger and stronger, and coming back from something like that, that’s expected.”
Want to catch a game? The Islanders schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
The top line of Lee, Barzal and Bo Horvat was the only forward trio for the Islanders to have an advantage on scoring chances or total shots in Game 1, per Natural Stat Trick.
Given that they drew a tough matchup against the line of Jordan Martinook, Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast, those numbers — while not overwhelming — are encouraging for their ability to impact the series.
“You’ve seen us play Carolina, there’s not a lot of pucks out there,” Lee said. “Not a lot of ice. It’s a tough team to pop into, tough style of hockey. I thought [Barzal] did the best he could and played a good game.”
The Islanders have not made public the exact nature of Barzal’s injury, but it is suspected to have been a knee issue, given that he collided knee-to-knee with Craig Smith minutes before leaving a loss to the Bruins.
His mobility seemed to be at full tilt Monday. That is vital for the Islanders, who need Barzal at his best in order to compete with Carolina, which has a chance to take a 2-0 series lead on Wednesday.
“It’ll be nice to carry the puck a little bit,” Barzal said. “We know the series is gonna be like that … a lot of pucks on the boards. It’d be nice to possess it more. I thought they drove that last night, so tomorrow we can gain that back.”
Matt Martin has played in 74 consecutive playoff games for the Islanders, a run that includes every playoff game for the franchise since 2013.