We talked last week about Bobby Ryan and the job new coach Guy Boucher has to get him going on a consistent basis.

Another well discussed relationship will be that of the new coach with the captain, Erik Karlsson.

And, quite frankly, convincing Karlsson that less is more. At least in terms of ice time. And I am specifically talking about penalty killing.

Ideally, Karlsson would play about 27-28 minutes per night, at even strength and on the power play. That is about where he was, but near the end of the season he was seeing regular penalty killing duty as well. Not an overwhelming amount, but some.

Just because he can kill penalties doesn't mean he should. And just because he might not doesn't mean he is any less of a defenseman regarless of what the critics might suggest. The main focus of a coach is to put players in the best position to succeed, both individually and for the team.

Penalty kills are hard minutes that you don't necessarily want him playing. It is like the old adage, would you use a Ferrari to pull stumps in your field? No, you would use a tractor or a nice, big pickup truck in a pinch. But on nights when Chris Wideman and Patrick Wiercioch were in the lineup, Dave Cameron didn't have much choice in the matter other than to use Karlsson because he didn't want either of the W's anywhere near the PK if it was avoidable..

The PK duties are better left to the likes of Methot, Phaneuf, Borowiecki and Ceci, as well as (insert new bottom pair defender's name here). As long as a proper system is put into place, which was certainly not evident last season, those guys should be able to put together at least a middling PK unit without having to put Karlsson over the boards, whether he wants to or not.

That 1:19 per night that Karlsson spent on the PK last season might not seem like much (155th most among defensemen in the league), but was 1:19 more he could have been getting a breather to do what he does best, generate offense from the back end at even strength and the man advantage.

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