PHILADELPHIA — Justin Barron got the puck at the point, used the time and space afforded to him, and put his shot right in Jesse Ylonen’s wheelhouse to tip home.
He was doing what Martin St. Louis asked all his players to do against the Philadelphia Flyers — play the game in front of them — and it was no fault of Barron’s that the one in front of him and his Montreal Canadiens teammates was a complete cakewalk.
If you want an indication of how bad the Flyers were at Wells Fargo Center on Friday, they weren’t just booed off the ice after all three periods; they were also booed as they came onto it for both the second and third.
They hadn’t generated more than two high-danger shot attempts through the first 36 minutes of the game, and they were fortunate to score two goals over the final 24 minutes.
The Flyers gave up much more than just the five goals the Canadiens scored to beat them by three. They allowed the Canadiens to do whatever they wanted for most the night, and the visitors obliged.
Afterwards, Flyers coach John Tortorella conceded his team just didn’t have it, that it was “sluggish” and “slow,” that the Canadiens — despite all their injuries — deserved credit for playing fast. And when he was asked about his team’s effort, he hesitated to call it poor but wouldn’t stand up at his pulpit applauding it.
“Tonight, it wasn’t a full group effort,” Tortorella finally said. “Let’s put it that way.”
Put another way by one Canadiens player, “They didn’t appear to be all that inspired.”
As for him and his teammates, as Josh Anderson put it, “It was one of our best games of the year (in terms of) just being complete, everyone knowing where each other (was)…”
Even Chris Tierney, who was claimed off waivers by the Canadiens on Thursday, got in on the fun, scoring his first with the team with five seconds remaining in the first period.
The Canadiens dominated the rest of the game.
“I thought we made plays that were there,” Anderson continued. “We didn’t really force much, and we still played the smart game, too, when we needed to get it in and check.”
That’s what we saw from Barron over his season-high 19:24 on Friday.
The 21-year-old has emerged inspired and confident over the five wins in seven games the Canadiens have notched since All-Star Weekend. Not only is he playing the game in front of him, but also the one he’s best equipped to play.
Defensively, Barron’s been steady on a pair with Mike Matheson, which is what the Canadiens hoped he’d be when they dealt him the disappointing blow of sending him down to the AHL to refine his game at the beginning of the season.
“I think going down for him was a chance to work on his game and coming back up, he probably felt prepared because he had put the time down there not feeling sorry for himself but actually getting after it,” said St. Louis on Thursday.
The product, upon Barron’s return to the Canadiens in late December, was the player showing in increments that he could be more reliable.
But his game steadily built up, and he has begun playing to his strengths. The ones that saw him drafted 25th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 2020 and coveted in the 2022 trade the Canadiens made to acquire him — along with a 2024 second-round draft pick — for Artturi Lehkonen.
Barron’s assist in this 5-2 win was his fourth point in his last seven games. And even if it came a bit easier than the three goals he scored over his previous six, it was evidence of him leaning into his confidence and playing his fast-moving, fast-thinking game.
Matheson, who’s in his eighth NHL season, spoke to how challenging it can be for a young defenceman to do that.
“Through your whole career, no matter what age you are, you spend so much time thinking about fixing your deficiencies that it can be easy to forget what you’re good at,” he said.
But Matheson has been reminding Barron to do what he does best.
“That’s kind of my role, too, as somebody who’s playing with him a lot and somebody who’s played a while in this league,” the 28-year-old said. “Just kind of keep him present and not worry about what might have happened on one shift or things like that. It’s super important to not kind of get too wide in your focus. Concentrate on what you can do and where your game is at and just have confidence.
“I think it’s cliché, but just have fun, too. You’re always playing your best when you’re having fun versus thinking about all that other stuff like, ‘Can I get sent down?’ He needs to just go play.”
Barron’s been doing it over the past two weeks, and it’s taken him to another level.
That his performance on Friday looked the same as the one he put in on Tuesday in a win in New Jersey — and the ones he put in over the five games prior to Tuesday — is a big step in the direction he’s hoping to go in.
On Friday morning, Barron was saying, “It’s about becoming consistent, trying to get better each day and each game and building my game up like I’ve been doing the last little while.”
You can say Barron and his teammates were given an easy opportunity to do that against the Flyers, and you’d be right.
But he — and they— took advantage of that opportunity.