Recently, I spoke with William Karlsson about the stick change which may have contributed to his scoring surge this year.
Before the season, Karlsson shortened his stick by a couple inches and changed his blade to Victor Rask's.
Yesterday, I followed up with Karlsson about this change; Alex Tuch guest stars.
Not so coincidentally, Karlsson dropped a natural hat trick this afternoon on the Flames. With 39 goals, he's now fourth in league in goals scored behind Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Laine, and Evgeni Malkin. Karlsson now has the first hat trick (12/31/17 against Toronto) and natural hat trick in franchise history.
Again, thanks to Jonatan Lindquist for the tip about Karlsson's stick.
HockeyBuzz: Something I forgot to ask about the stick that you're using this year. You mentioned that you're using Victor Rask's blade. What's the difference between his blade and your old one?
William Karlsson: It's a little more curved [than my old blade].
HB: How does that help?
WK: I can control the puck a little bit.
Alex Tuch: Believe me, it's not the wand, it's the wizard.
HB: Thank you, Alex! (laughs)
WK: I fixed the lie too, so I have a lot more blade on the ice in a certain position. I think that helped a lot too.
AT: He's always had it in him.
WK: Maybe, yeah.
AT: He's not just getting lucky. Almost 40 goals!
WK: Nah, it's the stick. Must be the stick.
AT: I use the same fucking stick. It's not the stick.
HB: You use the same stick?
AT: Yeah, but probably a little bit different specs. Because obviously, I'm a tad bigger. And he's a lefty.
(After Karlsson's hat trick this afternoon, I spoke with the Swedish sniper once again.)
HB: It's not the wand, it's the wizard, right?
WK: Must be the wizard, right?
***
HockeyBuzz: William, is there something about afternoon games that you like? Because both of your hat tricks have been in afternoon games.
William Karlsson: Yeah, very true. I guess I just like them. Get out of bed, come here, prepare. I like it. We should have more 1 PM games.
Sinbin.Vegas: Stop wasting your time on morning skates.
This was right after the Reaves's hit. Up to this point, Calgary had outshot Vegas 23-8 and outchanced them at evens 9-4. This Jonathan Marchessault chance was probably the Golden Knights' best so far.
Marchessault stays with the attacking Johnny Gaudreau at the blue line, poking it out. This was a rare one-on-one battle victory for Vegas, and on Calgary's most dangerous forward.
This gave the Knights a two-on-one, which Mike Smith snuffed out -- but this was also the home team's first outnumbered attack of the contest.
On the ensuing shift, Karlsson drew a trip on Dougie Hamilton. On the power play, Colin Miller made it 1-0, and the once-dominant Flames were left chasing the rest of the game.
Pluses
A number of great, small plays led to Karlsson's hat trick.
After James Neal intercepted Brodie's ill-advised pass, Tuch took Brodie out on the way to the bench. Should this have been interference on Tuch? You can argue that Brodie sailed into Tuch's normal route to the bench. Regardless, this created a clear-cut 2-on-1 for Neal and Karlsson.
Just before Travis Hamonic's rim reaches Micheal Ferland, Ferland falls. While Ferland recovers, Karlsson takes advantage of the mishap with a quick stick, and feeds it back to Marchessault behind the net.
Brodie chases Marchessault to the right, but a quick stop by the swift skater, and he goes to his left, leaving the defender a step behind. Marchessault then finds Karlsson, who is camped in a soft spot.
Mark Giordano pinches down on Marchessault, but Nate Schmidt comes up with the loose puck and just goes. It looks like Marchessault subtly picks Sean Monahan; whether he does so or not, for a split-second, he occupies two Flames, which allows Karlsson another two-on-one.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 stops just in the first period, on way to a 42-save shutout. But he showcased his best, or at least his most unbelievable, in the second period:
Yup, scoreless 1st is win for #VegasBorn right now. Reaching for positives, they played bad 1st at NJ & rebounded. #VGK dominated in every aspect, only + is they were able to keep #CofRed to perimeter somewhat. But CGY on top of VGK like blanket at moment https://t.co/VpZwhyfsQm
Gerard Gallant addressed this point after the game:
[Goaltending Coach] Dave Prior talked about that.
He said, 'Our goalie is seeing all the shots.' Even though it didn't make the coach feel really good when you look up and see 20 shots against.
But for the most part, Fleury had a chance to make all those saves.
Yesterday, I talked about the importance of defending well after the initial mistake. Despite the lopsided shot counter, the Knights managed to defend adequately, albeit on their heels, to get themselves to that game-changing second period.
***
++++I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR ADVERTISERS! If you, or anyone you know would be interested in placing an ad here at HockeyBuzz, then send me a PM!++++
Vegas Golden Knights Blogger •Vegas Golden Knights Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»