2 weeks Ago By Paul Friesen
One of the most tried and true adages of playoff hockey has the unsung hero making the difference. While production from the top lines can cancel each other out, a fourth-liner steps up with a goal that ends a series or gives a team new life. Step right up, Winnipeg Jets forward Morgan Barron.
“I subscribe to the feeling we can make a difference all season, too. The moments are just more memorable,” Barron was saying on Friday. “Those top lines are probably going to be playing against each other a lot.
I put our top guys up against anybody’s in the league. But if we can win our matchups at the bottom of the lineup, that’ll go a long way.” While grind-line goals aren’t usually oil paintings, Barron scored a couple down the stretch that could have been framed and hung in the Louvre: on a partial breakaway against St.
Louis and off an individual rush the next game in Dallas. Given the fewer turnovers and less open ice in the playoffs, he’s ready to put the brush down and pick up his shovel again against St. Louis, starting on Saturday.
“You’re going to take what’s given,” he said. “Those quote-unquote fancy goals, that’s obviously not something I’m trying every other shift. But if the play’s there you’re going to take it.
” The 26-year-old Barron will start the playoffs anchoring a fourth line with Jaret Anderson-Dolan and David Gustafsson on the wings. He’s the most grizzled of the three, with 256 NHL games under his belt. Just five in the playoffs, though: two years ago in the first round against Vegas.
Gustaffson has played seven, Anderson-Dolan four with the L.A. Kings.
The one lesson Barron takes from his post-season experience: don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Stay in the moment. “Especially that Vegas series.
.. we played one of our best games of year in Game 1, and even the first period or two of Game 2,” he recalled.
“Then all of a sudden...
” It was eerily similar against Colorado last year, although Barron didn’t play. “Ultimately the series shifts pretty quick and then all of a sudden you’re heading home after five games. Whether you win the first game, lose the first game, play in eight overtimes, whatever it is, you just need to be able to move past that game and onto the next one every time.
“We’ve done a great job of that...
more than in years past. It felt like we didn’t have those lulls that we had in prior seasons.” Another tried and true hockey adage: from here on, the lulls are fatal.
[email protected] X: @friesensunmedia.
