Sucks that Barkov is hurt, hopefully it's not too bad. The way I see this is Nico went all in on the draw but Barkov's stick lift took him off balance, so instead of smacking at the puck, his stick was on the completely wrong path. So the force he was trying to win the puck with ended up being a crosscheck to a bad spot.

Hopefully FLA can see the tape and realize it was an accident. They pretty much mugged him every time he was on the ice for the last 40 minutes, most of them really good hits but a few in the boarding grey area and a few blatant crosschecks up high, many of them away from the play. No idea how none of it got called but I guess the refs were letting the players police the game.

Nico probably should have fought someone his size and he'd probably have had an easier night. Apparently he didn't even realize it happened until after the 2nd period. Also, the complete lack of any teammates coming to his aid does not give me good feelings for the rest of the season. There are some guys who are bubble players who I don't imagine will be in the lineup much longer, as they'll need to replace some of the speed with sandpaper.