SAN JOSE, Calif. — Erik Karlsson switched conferences and coasts. Moved his family in the middle of training camp from the deeply rooted comfort of Ottawa to the great unknown in Silicon Valley. Went from being Mr. Everything for the Senators to someone trying to swim in formation with the Sharks.
And after all that, wouldn’t you know, this game had just one more big test in store: A terrible run of puck luck that could rival anything Karlsson has encountered during a 10-year NHL career.
It’s left those around the Sharks to answer multiple variations of the question “What’s wrong with Erik?” with “absolutely nothing.” There’s more than meets the eye to his eight points through 19 games — his least productive start over that number of games since he was a 19-year-old rookie.
“I was talking this morning on a radio show: When you look at the underlying numbers of what he’s doing here, they’re as good or better than they were two years ago in Ottawa when he led them to [Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final] and was winning the Norris and was one of the leading scoring defencemen in the league,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said Wednesday. “All those things are there, it just hasn’t broke the right way for him yet. So we’ve got to ignore the noise that you guys create and keep doing what we do.”
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That should be much easier to accomplish here than it would have been when he called Ottawa home. Karlsson isn’t requested to speak very often by the small contingent of local media in San Jose and Thursday’s visit by the Toronto Maple Leafs is just the second time he’ll face a Canadian team while wearing teal and black.
He even missed a group of travelling Toronto reporters on Wednesday after he took the option on San Jose’s optional skate.
When DeBoer looks at the full body of Karlsson’s work, he sees several indicators that suggest to him a big offensive breakthrough is coming: “Possession, shot, chance metrics. All those things.”
Karlsson is currently producing stronger per-60 rate stats in both scoring chances and Corsi for at even strength than he did in any of his previous three seasons in Ottawa, according to naturalstattrick.com. The Sharks are controlling 60 per cent of 5-on-5 shot attempts with him on the ice.
He’s fired 54 shots on goal and has yet to score, while producing nine assists. If you’re willing to take a process-driven approach, it’s fairly easy to see why the Sharks don’t seem terribly concerned about their big September trade acquisition.
“A lot of very good things are going on, it just hasn’t resulted in points on the scoresheet yet. That’s around the corner, trust me on that,” said DeBoer. “We’re going to sit and have this conversation and you guys will forget everything you’ve written in the last month and say ‘I knew it was coming.’ Like you always do.”
That’s not to suggest there haven’t been some challenges. All Karlsson had known, hockey-wise, was the Senators until the blockbuster trade that sent Dylan DeMelo, Chris Tierney, prospects Josh Norris and Rudolfs Balcers, plus two conditional draft picks to Ottawa.
It was a move designed to give the Sharks the best chance possible to compete for the Stanley Cup this season. They are all in. Karlsson is playing on an expiring contract — as is Sharks captain Joe Pavelski and centre Joe Thornton.
As soon as the 28-year-old Swede arrived in San Jose, Brent Burns says a dressing room spilling over with veterans and characters made a concerted effort to have some fun with him. Burns had been through a trade once before himself — arriving here from Minnesota in 2011 — and remembers how strange it can feel in the early days.
“I mean it’s everything,” said Burns. “Your daily routine, your coffee place, your grocery store, your restaurant. I think the majority, if not all of us, are pretty routine creatures and you get into that routine for 10 years, it’s tough.
“I think just little extra stresses in your life. It takes time.”
Even for someone as accomplished as Karlsson — a man with four 70-plus-point seasons and two Norris Trophy wins — there’s a natural tendency to try and impress when you get to a new team. That may mean thinking more consciously on the ice rather than relying on instincts.
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It’s a challenge, too, when the bounces aren’t going in your favour.
“For sure it is. It’s human nature,” said DeBoer. “You want to come in, you want to make an impact, you want to show people what you can do, you want to help your new team. All those things. For sure that can weigh on you, but sometimes you have to take a step back and look at what’s actually going on, and the reality of that.”
So even though the goals and points haven’t come as rapidly as Karlsson has come to expect, he’s being encouraged to stay the course.
His arrival has given the coaching staff the chance to spread his top three defencemen across different pairings — with Karlsson playing alongside Brenden Dillon, Burns alongside Joakim Ryan and Marc-Edouard Vlasic alongside Justin Braun. And they’ve already seen some memorable performances from No. 65.
“There’s been at least a few games where I’ve walked out of the rink and he’s controlled the entire game and you saw what his best-night capability is,” said DeBoer. “It’s scary good. I think he’s come as advertised.”
