Perhaps the rest of the NHL, particularly Toronto-centric media, did, so Barkov played one of the best games in his career on Hockey Night in Canada against the Maple Leafs with his first career hat trick while playing nearly half the game.
These sorts of games are becoming the norm for Barkov, who’s being run into the ground by Bob Boughner because he has painted himself to a corner where he has no other option than to play Barkov all the time.
For all of the jokes about Barkov possibly being bionic, what he has to do to get the Florida Panthers to the fringes of respectability is bordering on making Connor McDavid blush.