TORONTO — Three months ago, Mathew Barzal was picturing what he might do on a top line with Bo Horvat and Anthony Duclair, the heights to which the trio might take the Islanders and what it might be like to play for Team Canada in February.
It took just five games of the season for that plan to hit a speed bump in the form of Duclair getting hurt with a suspected groin injury, then five more for it to go off the rails altogether when Barzal got hurt himself — costing him any shot at a national team selection and putting the Islanders on a back foot from which they have yet to recover.
All signs are pointing to the Islanders finally playing at something resembling full strength Saturday night against the Maple Leafs, with Duclair a full-go at Friday’s practice and coach Partick Roy calling him a game-time decision only out of caution, conceding that it “looks like he’s gonna play.”
Resembling full strength and actually being 100 percent, however, are two different things.
Barzal is seeing that firsthand over his first games back from an upper-body injury.
“Anyone that comes back, six weeks out, [even if] you score a couple goals here and there, you’re still not feeling 100 percent,” Barzal told The Post on Friday. “In terms of the actual injury, it’s 100 percent, but you gotta get your legs and lungs.”
Two games post-return, No. 13 described himself as doing “OK” — the inflection in his tone indicating that OK still is far from where he wants to be. In those two games, losses in Chicago and Carolina, Barzal didn’t score a point and was minus-3, with a few noticeable instances of his timing looking off.
Though his speed and skating still add dimensions for the Islanders, he has yet to impact games the way he did last year, when he reached the 80-point threshold for the first time since his rookie season.
“Try to just work on it in practice right now,” Barzal said. “Get some good sweats going, get that heart rate up so I can get in shape quicker. That’s really it. It’s obviously not pleasant, necessarily, to be injured and come back and need to get your cardio back, but it is what it is. I can only work at it.”
Barzal also has yet to be paired on a line with Horvat — a trend that looks set to continue in Toronto.
If Friday’s practice is any indication, it appears the trio that made up the opening-night top line will be completely split against the Leafs, as Duclair skated on Brock Nelson’s line, Horvat between Max Tsyplakov and Simon Holmstrom and Barzal with Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
It’s a tradeoff between a deeper lineup and having a legit scoring line, and right now, Roy is choosing the deeper lineup.
“I like having [Barzal] as a center because he can skate with the puck more,” Roy said. “Feels like it’s easier for him. I think it’s his natural position, in a way. What I also like is having the centers like we have — Nelly, Bo, him, Casey [Cizikas]. It’s a lot tougher for the other teams to match up.”
On paper, he’s right, but whether that translates to the ice remains to be seen.
The Islanders (12-14-7) might finally be back at full strength, but they can’t afford to price in another few weeks before they actually start playing like it.
Stacking points — and doing it right now — is of urgent import to avoid the season slipping away.
“There hasn’t been an ounce of belief lost in this room,” Barzal said. “That’s been one thing that’s been consistent since I’ve been here. Wherever we are in the standings, we’re always confident that we can make a push.”
The Islanders need that push to happen soon, and they need their returning stars to be on the front lines of it.
