Interesting to read the multiple reports detailing Eric Karlsson's problematic start to the season. Did the Sens forsee a longer term physical breakdown coming out of his injury?
- spatso
I'm not one to buy into the kind of character assassination that's become the norm for players who leave this team... but as far as Karlsson goes the combination of his relatively poor start in San Jose, the post-trade statements about his leadership style, and the extent to which a very different team character has almost immediately evolved in Ottawa is certainly unexpected. Now Karlsson could very well turn on the jets, badly outscore the rest of the league's d-men over the next 3/4 of the season, and win the Norris... but so far it's hardly been the game-changing addition that many had assumed. Conversely, the trade return Ottawa got for Karlsson has already proven to be significantly more valuable than most had initially realized, not to mention what the ice-time opportunity has done to further the development of Chabot as a high-end offensive d-man.
That said, if we're taking bets on good vs. lucky, I'm going with lucky... though neither have exactly been the norm for this team over the past year.
