Colorado's best defenseman may not be who you think

Tyson Barrie, number one defenseman?

In a year nobody saw coming, even this seems a little ridiculous…right?

With his trademark curly hair and boyish grin, the down-to-earth defenseman can be a little too close to the earth for the liking of many. Listed at just 5’10” and 190 pounds, even that may be a touch on the generous side for the diminutive defender.

And yet, standing at his locker following a three-point night and helping spark the Colorado Avalanche defense to a 5-0 trouncing of the shockingly beatable Chicago Blackhawks, Barrie seemed as tall as anyone in the room as he answered questions about his defense, of all topics.

Early in the second period, Barrie was involved in a mad scramble around the Avalanche net and he found himself behind goaltender Semyon Varlamov with the puck on his stick. He swatted the puck away from the goal line, only to have it bounce off Varlamov’s skate and head back toward the net. He collected it in and tossed it away, this time to safety and the Avalanche maintained their 2-0 lead.

“That was nice,” Barrie said, a wide grin spreading across his face. “You don’t want to put yourself in that position too many times. It was probably my fault the puck was even that close to the goal line. I was fortunate I could get a stick on there a couple times.”

It’s not often Barrie finds himself talking about something he did well in his own zone. His track record there is a smorgasbord of being overpowered in corners and in front of the net as larger bodies seek to impose their will on him. Instead of getting outmanned this time, Barrie took advantage of his fortunate positioning and made the best of a bad situation.

“Just kind of reactionary thing,” Barrie said while shrugging it off. “You see the puck heading over and just try and get a stick on it. I think I was lucky it wasn’t rolling too bad.”

He mentioned it was his fault in the first place. How so?

“The guy just drove me to the net so maybe I could have poked it earlier or whatever,” Barrie said, back to laughing his way through the interview. “You never want to find yourself in the situation where the puck was that close to going in so I was fortunate to get a stick on it there.”

That self-awareness has been key for Barrie as he’s learned if he’s going to be an effective defender, it needs to happen earlier in sequences as opposed to him trying to make like Nikita Zadorov and rely on overwhelming physicality to get him out of tough situations.

Eventually, the conversation found its way back to a more familiar locale: explaining the team’s success on the power play.

“It was kind of weird,” Barrie admitted. “The first period we kind of came out flat for some reason. I don’t know why. But we played really good in the second and third, a couple big power plays and it’s been struggling so it’s nice to get that going.”

For a unit that had been struggling recently, scoring three goals on three opportunities against the 21st-best penalty kill in the NHL was just the confidence boost they were looking for.

With his goal and two assists tonight, Barrie has now recorded 55 points in just 64 games played. Among defensemen, Barrie now ranks ninth in points, third in power-play points (28), and tied for second in power-play goals (six). What’s more impressive is the way he’s played without Erik Johnson in the lineup, who missed several weeks with a shoulder injury before recently returning.

Johnson sat out against Chicago and the offense once again turned to its tiny sparkplug on the back end and Barrie certainly did not disappoint.

“It’s tough when you lose EJ,” Barrie said. “He plays so many minutes. I don’t think it changes my game much. I’m always trying to jump in the play and try to create a little offense. Maybe I get together with the top lines a little more or something like that but you can’t replace EJ. I think the whole d corps played well tonight and you just kind of have to do it by committee.”

While some of the underlying numbers don’t indicate dominance, there’s something to be said about the team’s ability to lean on Barrie in the absence of Johnson and continue to find their way to victories. Now tied with the St. Louis Blues for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, the Avalanche remain on the outside looking in thanks to tiebreakers.

As the league transitions to the final week of the regular season, they have been led in part by Barrie (along with explosive scoring of Nathan Mackinnon and his linemates and the brilliance of Semyon Varlamov) playing big in a role he’s previously struggled mightily in.

In the past, Johnson always seemed like the protector of Barrie from the responsibilities of taking on the top competition every night. Barrie’s offensive explosions were a prime fit for exposing mismatches in-depth pairings and against non-first line levels of competition. Now, Barrie has turned in a truly elite offensive season despite missing several weeks thanks to a broken thumb back in December.

The Avalanche have played a style that rewards offensive aggression and Barrie is the very definition of the kind of defenseman who seeks to jump into the play and take advantage of lazy back checkers and indifferent team defense.

Tonight, the power play regained its mojo behind its quarterback, No. 4.

And while he was standing tall in his postgame scrum looking as relaxed as ever, he still remained focused on the objective: take this magical journey to the postseason.

“Obviously, we had a hard-fought game against Philly the other night,” Barrie said of his team’s 2-1 loss to the Flyers on Wednesday night. “I thought we played well and it just didn’t go our way. We knew we needed this one to kind of stay in the hunt. We’ve been good at home all year so we just wanted to show we were back at it.”

Not only did Barrie and the boys show they were back at it, he’s continued to elevate his game to the point where you legitimately start to wonder if he is Colorado’s best defenseman right now.

The answer is even shorter than he is: Yes.