Karlsson's season and future | MOD Warning Post 508

[KPower]

Leafs fan here.

Love you guys.



Watched both sens games,

Karlsson was great game 1.

 

[CanadianHockey]

Meh. I'm not too concerned. Bieksa mentioned cuts like these can take a while to completely heal, and as we've seen in Game 1, Karlsson still has game breaking ability.

Chalk it up to an off night where the ankle might have felt off due to a back-to-back.

 

[Here I Pageau Again]

What everyone needs to remember is that all players have bad nights, even the best ones.

Karlsson looked fine in game one, he looked bad in game two. He hasn't looked AS good as he did before his injury, but like mentioned above --- this injury can take a full year to heal all the way. Its been 6 months.

 

[DylanSensFan]

Has nothing to do with Karlsson's injury... he just needs get a little more scrappy, like he was previously. He could have laid down in front of that pass, or found some other action to actually take the pass away. To me Karlsson has simply looked disinterested on some plays... not anything more or less than that.

He needs to pick it up.

 

[HavlatMach9]

He needs to pick it up.

He had a bad game like this vs the Pens, but then next game he came out really strong. Being good is in him right now, so he'll pick it up. I'll read nothing into the game because it's a back to back and season is long.

 

[DylanSensFan]

he did not look particularly outstanding in game #1 despite what the announcers were saying. Karlsson has set a standard of great and when he plays with that type of moxie, then there isn't anything he cannot do. It was similar for Anderson two seasons ago when I knew he was not at the top of his game.

 

[Nordic*]

Oh look, it's the closet Detroit Red Wings fan who posts about Karlsson when he's doing poorly but stays quiet when Karlsson is playing lights out.

You don't know me. I'm a fan of Ottawa and of Erik Karlsson.

This thread was my opinions based on the start of the season, and asking what the rest of you think. Who said anything about panicking? I'm stating the obvious, that Karlsson doesn't look as good as he used to be before the injury, but hope that he'll regain his mojo soon.

Talk about me panicking? Look at some of the responses in this thread. Instead of actually talking about Karlsson some people scream bloody murder simply because someone dares to have an opinion after the first two games.

Read my first one more time post if you still don't understand what this thread was about.

 

[YNWA14]

I think people are overreacting far more to the OP than the OP is to the season. He's just pointing out his observations so far. He's very clear about that and even asking if he's jumping the gun a bit.

He's not wrong. Karlsson looked decent in the Buffalo game and was pretty awful in the Toronto game. It's 2 games in though, so there's no need to panic. I'm sure it'll be fine.

I think this fanbase as a whole needs to take a chill pill.

 

[TeamRenzo]

EK is done...he only has one goal all year...bust

 

[God Says No]

But I think we can all agree that his 'ultra speed' is not back. He is much quicker than he was in the Pittsburgh series, but he's not back to his speed dominating ways prior to the injury. I'm still holding out hope that at some point he'll regain that, but with each game I'm losing a bit.

 

[NyQuil]

He had one of the worst games of his career against the Leafs.

Now we get to see how MacLean and he respond.

 

[Proust*]

But I think we can all agree that his 'ultra speed' is not back. He is much quicker than he was in the Pittsburgh series, but he's not back to his speed dominating ways prior to the injury. I'm still holding out hope that at some point he'll regain that, but with each game I'm losing a bit.

That doesn't make any sense. It had been established on this board that Karlsson will not fully recover for another 4 months....

 

[Indrew]

Erik is his own worst enemy in a way. Expectations are so high for this guy that one bad game is cause for concern. Thankfully he is never happy with his play and is also striving to be better.

 

[Icelevel]

He has yet to look as good as he did just before his injury. We can assume he is not at 100% health yet OR just not up to speed because of the time off. Either way I am worried until he reaches that level again.

(matt cooke, je me souviens)

 

[Sensinitis]

What everyone needs to remember is that all players have bad nights, even the best ones.

Karlsson looked fine in game one, he looked bad in game two. He hasn't looked AS good as he did before his injury, but like mentioned above --- this injury can take a full year to heal all the way. Its been 6 months.

8 months*

 

[God Says No]

He has yet to look as good as he did just before his injury. We can assume he is not at 100% health yet OR just not up to speed because of the time off. Either way I am worried until he reaches that level again.

(matt cooke, je me souviens)

That's exactly my feeling.

 

[shootingrubber]

He has yet to look as good as he did just before his injury. We can assume he is not at 100% health yet OR just not up to speed because of the time off. Either way I am worried until he reaches that level again.

(matt cooke, je me souviens)

In his first game back he looked pretty damn close to 100% to me. Obviously not perfect, but that can be attributed to not playing in forever.

Can this thread just be closed already? It's a joke. 2 games in. TWO!

 

[aragorn]

I thought it was a pretty good game, lots of back & forth stuff & we did have a 4-2 lead at one point. In past yrs under PM Ottawa seemed to get stronger as the game progressed but against the Leafs they looked tired in the late in the 2nd & 3rd periods. That may explain blowing a lead but in the 2nd game of a back to back on the road playing through three periods & an overtime & tied at 4-4, I thought they did fairly well coming away with 3 pts of a possible 4 pts.

PM needs to get that first line going & his 3rd line also needs to play better. Pageau was not very good in the face circle in both games & Ottawa needs more from that 3rd line to win consistently. I thought the 4th line did their job rather well, you can't blame them for not scoring goals, that's the first line's job.

 

[GrantLemons]

Has nothing to do with Karlsson's injury... he just needs get a little more scrappy, like he was previously. He could have laid down in front of that pass, or found some other action to actually take the pass away. To me Karlsson has simply looked disinterested on some plays... not anything more or less than that.

He needs to pick it up.

Exactly this.

I can deal with some rust or taking some time to get back into the swing of things, but I saw this from Karlsson, and it is very concerning.

There was also a play where Wiercioch, I believe, had it at the line in the Leafs end and Karlsson wanted a cross ice D to D pass. Wier didn't see it, or decided to just throw it at the net, and it was smothered by Bernier. Karlsson then proceeded to smack his stick furiously on the ice about 20 times looking and shaking his head at Wiercioch, clearly intensly (and in my opinion, overly) frustrated he didn't find him there. Last thing he needs to do is start rubbing guys the wrong way with actions like that.

Two games into the season, he and the team get a pass. But Karlsson at times on Saturday night really just didn't look like he gave a ****, and that is concerning.

 

[YNWA14]

Trade Karlsson. Clearly he doesn't want to win with Ottawa anymore now that Alfie is gone. Get rid of Zibby and Lehner too and bring in some good Canadian boys.

 

[Asquaredx2]

Well a few things:

1) I remember the first couple games last season, and EK and the Sens didn't look so hot in those even if they got results

2) there could be an aspect of adjusting to life post-Alfredsson

3) the injury is still healing -- when his speed goes a bit his confidence is also affected and that in turn can impact how much he gets into the game. I mean when EK hit his stride last year he was literally the farthest skater up the ice at times and then the first to get back. He was involved in every play.

4) A player can have a bad game. Karlsson had some weaker games even in that mythical 14 game stretch last year.

I'm going to be reserving judgment for a long time on this one.

 

[DeVoice]

wow 1 game of a stinker and its dooooooom.
i may be old but lets see just remembering off the top of my head.
Brodeur has had stinkers.....Bure use to blow off a game every so often.
even saw the great one play detroit in my early teens and do sweet jack during the game so did EK65 have a bad game.....YES am i worried.....NO

give the season time.

 

[Here I Pageau Again]

8 months*

Either way, we shouldn't expect anything until he hits 12 months, which is still another 4 months.

So why are people losing their mind!?

First its been ONE bad game. Second, he wasn't even expected to be playing/skating for 6 months. And third, players have bad games. All players have bad games.

I personally predicted Karlsson would struggle this year. And that shouldn't be a shock. Plus its one game, who's to say he won't be dominant from here on in?

 

[costermonger]

am I overly negative?

Considering the first time I saw you post this stuff was 2 periods into the season, yes, yes you are.

 

[Iconoclast]

I feel like we're so accustomed to Karlsson being so good that we're shocked whenever he makes even the smallest mistake. I'll catch myself saying that every game, he'll slip up at the blue line or something and I'll be like "Wow Karlsson should never have made that mistake" and then I realize it's the only thing he's done wrong in the entire period.

Norris or not he's still human guys, not a god.


He'll reach that level in his prime.