Tyson Barrie boarded the six o'clock bus to Rogers Arena Tuesday with the rest of the Nashville Predators ' healthy scratches. He hadn't played in a game since March 28, and there was no reason to believe that would change in Game 5 against the Vancouver Canucks .
But when he arrived at the arena, just about 20 minutes before the start of warmups, everything changed. Defenseman Luke Schenn , who had started the first four games in the best-of-7 series against the Canucks, was dealing with an illness. Though he had participated in morning skate, it became clear closer to warmups that he wasn't well enough to play.
"I got off the bus and [Director of Team Services Brandon Walker] was like, Hey, I need you,'" Barrie said in a post-game interview with Pete Weber and Hal Gill on 102.5 The Game . "And I was like, 'Oh, here we go.' So I had about 12 minutes to get a foam roll and then get my gear on and get out for warmup."
Barrie, who hails from Victoria, B.C., about 70 miles from Vancouver, had not spent the day like a typical game day. He had taken his dog for a leisurely walk along the Vancouver Seawall earlier that afternoon; now, he was stepping into an elimination game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I didn't have any time to think about it," Barrie said. "I just kind of jumped into it. I've played a lot of games in this league... I've done this a couple hundred times. So I just tried to keep it simple in short shifts and make the easy plays."
Related: Predators Rally Past Canucks, Stay Alive With Game 5 Win
A veteran of 809 regular-season games and 47 playoff games in his NHL career, Barrie felt up to the challenge of helping his team extend the series – even if his pregame timeline had been anything but normal.
"I'm comfortable on a power play and running a power play," Barrie said. "It was nice to get an opportunity to step in there and and try to change the tide a little bit. I thought we moved around good had some good opportunities."
Barrie didn't miss a beat; he logged 17:42 of ice time, including 4:35 on the man advantage, to help lift the Predators to a Game 5 win over Vancouver and force a Game 6 back in Nashville. He recorded an assist on Roman Josi 's power-play goal to tie the game in the third period before Alexandre Carrier scored the eventual game-winner.
"That's a gutsy effort to come up with a big win," Barrie said. "It's an incredible group of humans in there. It's just a special locker room, and you can see there's no quit. It's kind of been that way all year, and there's a lot of love in that room. Being able to jump in for a game here and get a win to keep this thing alive was pretty special."
Related: Why the Predators Didn't Trade Tyson Barrie at the Deadline
Whether Barrie will see the ice again during these Stanley Cup Playoffs will likely depend on whether the rest of the Predators' defense corps can stay healthy. Regardless, he has proven he is up to the task of stepping into game action at a moment's notice – even if he has to take his dog for a walk first.
"It might have to be [my new pregame routine]," Barrie chuckled. "It was a little stressful, but it was it was a lot of fun."
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