Another day, another Blues bottom-six skater getting the book thrown at him by the NHL Department of Player Safety.
After Oskar Sundqvist was handed a one-game suspension for his hit on Matt Grzelcyk in Game 2 that landed the Bruins defenseman in the concussion protocol, St. Louis’ Ivan Barbashev joined him as another Blues forward to sit out a Stanley Cup Final contest due to a ruling from the league office.
While it was not called for a penalty at the time, Barbashev found himself in the crosshairs of the NHL after he delivered a check to the head of Bruins winger Marcus Johansson at 5:24 of the first period of Game 5 Thursday night.
Ivan Barbashev with a high hit on Marcus Johansson.
Clean or dirty hit? ?#StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/lok8yHC3qD
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 7, 2019
While Johansson faced a much better fate than Grzelcyk and was able to remain in the game, the targeted area of Barbashev’s hit was enough evidence for the league to sit the Russian forward out for Game 6 on Sunday night.
This is the first suspension of Barbashev’s career — and the sixth time this postseason that a player has been suspended, joining
Nikita Kucherov, Nazem Kadri, Charlie McAvoy,
Joe Thornton
and Sundqvist.
BSJ Analysis
The Bruins would obviously be much more thrilled if a top-six option like
Ryan O’Reilly
would sit out for a game, but regardless, it is a bit of a hit for St. Louis to lose Barbashev, who has been a key cog on a very active fourth line this series and for the entire Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“A lot like Sundqvist, heavy hockey, good defensive stuff, penalty kill, just relentless on the puck and the forecheck,” Blues coach
Craig Berube
said of what Barbashev brings to the Blues. “They've been a physical line throughout the playoffs.”
Even with his standing as a fourth liner, Barbashev is often a versatile tool for Berube, averaging 16:09 of ice time this postseason, including 1:25 on a penalty kill that has negated Boston’s last five stints on the man advantage. He also tallied a goal in the Blues’ Game 3 loss at Enterprise Center.
More importantly, he’s been a pest when it comes to slowing down a slumping top-six for Boston, splitting most of his reps against both
Patrice Bergeron
and
David Krejci’s
lines.
During the Blues’ two-game win streak in Games 4 and 5, Barbashev has faced off against
David Pastrnak
for 16:29 of 5v5 TOI. In that stretch, Boston has been limited to zero goals and one high-danger scoring chance, with the Bruins only holding a shot differential of plus-4. Berube and his staff will take that every day of the week when it comes to a fourth line matching up against the Bergeron line.
“He plays in all situations,” Blues captain
Alex Pietrangelo
said. “He's been big for us on the penalty kill. You guys have talked about how big that line is, too, so we know what he is. He's been great for us.”
Losing Barbashev will hurt, but we’ve seen the Blues actually benefit from supplementary discipline earlier this series. When Sundqvist was suspended for Game 3, the Blues turned to
Zach Sanford
as the next man up to slot into the fourth line. Fair to say, it’s worked out pretty well for the Massachusetts native, who has tallied three assists since getting inserted into the lineup and is now part of a potent second line with O’Reilly and
David Perron
.
From the Bruins’ perspective, Friday’s news is already an easier pill to swallow than when Sundqvist was suspended, given that Grzelcyk is still not cleared to return to game action from his concussion. Thankfully, Johansson does not seem to be any worse for wear, with the forward
“No lingering effects that I'm aware of,”
Bruce Cassidy
said of Johansson. “Again, I thought it was a high hit. I thought the officials were close enough to call it, they didn't. Again, I'm not going to go down that road again. … We'll just worry about Game 6. Obviously we always game plan to a certain extent which player is in the lineup, but it's more about the whole group, how they played, than one individual."