Every moment matters in the Stanley Cup playoffs, especially when one mistake or terrific decision can lead to a season-altering goal in overtime. With that in mind, we'll dive in deep with a video breakdown for every game-winning overtime goal of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs to highlight the little things that you might've missed while celebrating or crying.
Further Review: The Islanders’ Game 3 game-winner came down to one Panthers mistake
Breaking down every 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs overtime goal.
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The New York Islanders earned a first-round victory in Game 3 against the Florida Panthers on Sunday thanks to the failings of a young star and an NHL legend.
It's not every day you see that. Aleksander Barkov will be a star for the Panthers for the next decade. But his decisions on Thomas Hickey's game-winning overtime goal provide the perfect example of how one hockey mistake often cascades into a greater one.
We’ll pick it up in the middle of the Islanders’ winning shift.
The Islanders have dumped the puck in from the left side of the zone and eventually cycled it back around to the left again. I only point out this frame to show what the Panthers’ modus operandi is when defending in their zone. All five forwards have their assignments: one on the puck-carrier, one on the net-front Islander, one ready to break up a play in the slot and two generally covering the defensemen at the blue line.
As you can see, this overloads their coverage to one side of the ice. This will come into play later.
Now the Islanders have circled the puck back around the net. Notice how the Panthers' coverage is essentially the same, with Jonathan Huberdeau (No. 11) ready to follow the puck-carrier up the ice.
Kulemin continues his journey backwards, and the Panthers switch assignments successfully. Huberdeau takes Kulemin, Brian Campbell (No. 51) tracks Islanders center Josh Bailey (No. 12) down low and Aleksander Barkov heads to the high slot so all three Panthers forwards are covering lanes up high.
So far the Panthers have played this shift perfectly. The Islanders cycled, the Panthers shifted and suddenly Nikolai Kulemin is stuck at the point with virtually no play:
Then he shot the puck. And the Panthers’ coverage collapsed.
The puck is in the air, and Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk (No. 55, to the far right) starts to skate toward the far boards. New York is overloading up top, and Barkov needed to continue covering him. Jaromir Jagr is in the right position. As a weak-side wing, he needs to remain vigilant of Hickey on the weak-side point.
Instead, Barkov leaves Boychuk to chase the puck down low. Jagr compensates for this by leaving his weak-side assignment to cover Boychuk.
But Boychuk curls back toward the blue line, so Jagr gets dragged down to the slot while he eyes the play. Barkov is still covering nothing. While the puck is heading to the corner, a few important things are about to happen at the blue line.
Kulemin (86) starts heading off the ice for a line change. Shane Prince (11) is going to come on. But more importantly, Hickey (14) heads to the point.
Jagr is where he needs to be at this precise moment; he’s a weak-side winger meant to cover the slot in an emergency. But because Barkov is aimlessly drifting, Prince and Hickey are about to outnumber the Panthers up high.
Jagr begins drifting to the point, presumably to cover Prince when he jumps into the play. But look at his head.
His eyes never leave the puck. Jagr is an age-old wizard, so perhaps he just sensed the movement up top and instinctively drifted up to cover. Who knows. But he’s drifting into a trap.
So is Barkov, who then decides to be the breakout man when Alex Petrovic (No. 6) passes from the corner. But as soon as Barkov and Jagr get two strides from their positions, Brock Nelson wins the puck in the corner and curls around towards the net.
And every Panther realizes their mistakes. Campbell covers Nelson, leaving Barkov to cover a slot he’s nowhere near. Jagr remembers Hickey and scampers to cover him far too late.
And that was it. Nelson gets the pass to a wide-open Hickey, who beats a helpless Roberto Luongo for the game-winner.
Chalk it up to weariness of a three games in four nights stretch. Chalk it up to Barkov’s inexperience. No matter how you slice it, Hickey’s goal shows how a single second of lapsed judgement can alter a playoff series.
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