Florida Panthers: Top 3 players who must step up to beat Islanders

2. Noel Acciari

Another key part of shutting down Barzal will be finding the right centers to match up against him. The Vincent Trocheck trade all but ensures the heavy lifting will be done by Aleksander Barkov. It also ensures third-line center Noel Acciari will bear a lot of responsibility as well, especially if trade deadline acquisition Erik Haula struggles.

Acciari has been a surprising star for the Panthers this season. He set a career-high with 20 goals and 27 points in 66 games. Before coming to Florida, Acciari had 18 goals and 31 points in 180 games with the Boston Bruins.

In the playoffs, having depth is key. To win, you need your secondary scorers to complement your best scorers. And when your best scorers aren’t scoring, your secondary scorers need to step up and take charge. That’s why Acciari is so important for the Panthers.

Also, when Acciari played against Barzal this season, nothing happened. And that’s a good thing. Zero goals were scored when Acciari and Barzal faced each other. Granted, it was just over a nine-minute sample size. But I’m sure the Panthers would happily accept nothing happening when Barzal’s on the ice.

Players like Acciari can emerge as heroes in the postseason. He didn’t do much in Boston (seven points in 35 postseason games), but this is a different Acciari.