Tyson Barrie’s breakout earns him a spot in Toronto’s history book

While every player on Toronto seems to have responded beyond everyone’s wildest dreams to new head coach Sheldon Keefe, perhaps no one’s response is more noticeable than defenseman Tyson Barrie’s. After coming over to the Leafs in the Nazem Kadri trade during the offseason, Barrie struggled greatly under former coach Mike Babcock, going 23 games without scoring a goal. That has changed quickly under the Keefe regime.

Barrie now has goals in three consecutive games. With that, he becomes the first defenseman in Toronto’s history to score a goal in three consecutive team games, all on the road. The last blueliner to do it for any team was Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, who accomplished the feat in 2013-14.

Barrie also has two assists on top of the three goals for a total of five points in his last three games. He’s finally starting to look like the player the Leafs thought they were getting in the Kadri trade. In the team’s decisive 6-0 win over Detroit last night, Barrie earned the game-ball as Toronto’s player of the game as chosen by his teammates. His response to the award was great.

"I can play a little. I'm too short to really be effective, but my ball-handling's nice,” he said. Perhaps we’ll just leave that comment as is without expanding on it.

Barrie also took the time to talk about Detroit’s goalie situation during last night’s game. After Jonathan Bernier was scratched as the starter just before the game, he had to come in anyway as Jimmy Howard went down with an injury. If Bernier had been too ill to play, Detroit’s only other option was practice goalie Josh Block. 

"We heard (Jonathan Bernier) had the flu or something and we thought we might be seeing a (Scott) Foster or one of those guys come in. We were getting a little excited,” said Barrie with a smile.

Foster famously filled in as an emergency goalie for Chicago in 2018

Again, the entire team, Barrie included, seems to be much looser and more relaxed under Keefe than it ever was under Babcock. The results speak for themselves. The team is now 3-0-0 under Keefe and shows no signs of slowing down.