A 21-year-old whiz kid from the 'foresty' part of Sweden is leading Ottawa to great heights and making the experts look awful.

By Ken Campbell
Feb. 2012/vol. 65, issue 17

HERE’S AN INTERESTING experiment for a social scientist. Go to Sweden, comb every square mile of the country and try to find the jerk who’s singularly impressed with himself. There has to be one, right?

But don’t be surprised if you return empty-handed.

And don’t bother looking in any arenas because apparently none of them has ever held a hockey stick in his life.

In Sweden, they have a saying that goes something like this: “Talking is silver, silence is gold.” People are taught from a very early age never to stand out from the crowd or risk making anyone feel uncomfortable. Get this – they’re currently in a national debate over whether to offer elite-level schooling to intellectually gifted kids.

It’s a fascinating aspect of Scandinavian culture, which is deeply rooted in Jantelagen, or Jante’s Laws, a list of 10 life rules, all of which begin with the word “don’t”. There’s “Don’t think you are anything special,” followed closely by “Don’t think you are good at anything,” and “Don’t think anyone cares about you.”

Then along comes Erik Karlsson, albeit only slightly bleary-eyed. The first thing he does is apologize for the state of his hair. It’s early in the morning and he’s a young person, meaning it’s not exactly the part of the day when he shines. Old people get up early. It’s particularly difficult to be a morning glory when your team has decided not to charter out after a big game that your team won, but had no business winning, followed by dinner and a couple of beers.

The Ottawa Senators haven’t experienced these kinds of heady times for a while and as Karlsson’s teammate Nick Foligno points out, “Our team is enjoying every bit of this. And we should.”

Anyone who projected before the season that Karlsson would be a leading candidate for the Norris Trophy and the Senators would be battling for first place in the Northeast Division and the Eastern Conference in the middle of January… well nevermind, because nobody did.

In our annual yearbook, The Hockey News picked the Senators to finish dead last in the East and placed their odds of winning the Stanley Cup at 100 to 1. It was not a minority opinion.

But both the Senators and Karlsson have what rapper T.I. would call the swagger of a college kid, the opposite of moderate, immaculately polished. But not too much. The Senators’ success this season has been off the charts, but they have enough of a veteran presence to know how fleeting the good times can be. And in Karlsson, they have a young man who has displayed a certain amount of flamboyance both on and off the ice, but that’s all relative, of course.

Karlsson actually represents a new generation of Swedes. You get the sense Nicklas Lidstrom would give back his seven Norris Trophies if they let him and then canvass members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association to not vote for him to win an eighth if he thought he could get away with it.

But Karlsson, while downright modest by North American standards, came to the Senators as a cocksure teenager three years ago and hasn’t missed a beat since. To be sure, his play this season merits some sort of chest expansion. Which brings us to the Norris Trophy.

Should the 21-year-old win it, he would be the second youngest to do so after Bobby Orr (who did it as a 20-year-old in 1968) and the smallest to win since the 5-foot-10 Pierre Pilote (a three-time winner in 1963, ‘64 and ’65). And his personality would mark a radical departure from Lidstrom, who will tie Orr’s record of eight Norris Trophies if he manages to take it home once again.

Karlsson’s teammates know how outgoing he can be. He’s already a part of the Senators leadership group and had a hand in recently firing captain Daniel Alfredsson as music director in the dressing room. “I bet a lot of people I meet for the first time or the second time might think I’m a pretty cocky guy,” he said. “I can say some stuff sometimes without thinking and it’s no hard feelings from my way. The only reason I’m in this league is because of the way I play and the way I handle things and I don’t need to go away from that right now. I’ve got to believe in what I do and the way I play. You’ll probably meet a couple more guys who are more like me than you did 10 years ago.”

THE BEST SKATER I’VE EVER PLAYED WITH– JASON SPEZZA

Words such as those probably have Tommy Boustedt dropping to his knees and crying for joy into his hands. For the better part of a decade, the head of hockey development in Sweden has been trying to instill a more emboldened type of attitude into young Swedes by trying to convince them they are every bit as good as Canadians, Americans and Russians. Those who run Swedish hockey got tired of watching their skittish kids come up short in big games. The approach finally paid off in the World Junior Championship when the Senators’ top prospect, Mika Zibanejad, scored in overtime of the championship game to give Sweden a 1-0 win and its first gold medal in the event in 31 years. “I think we have to break out of that shell of being not satisfied enough,” Karlsson said. “We’ve got to believe in ourselves and we’ve got to tell people we are actually a pretty good team. If you say it, you have to believe it as well.”

Karlsson was talking about Sweden, but he could have just as easily been referring to the Senators, the most shocking team in the NHL so far this season. Buoyed by a fresh start and new attitude from coach Paul MacLean and a 14-5-6 record in one-goal games through mid-January, the Senators were rising to heights nobody could have foreseen. It helps that virtually every player on the team is having either a bounce-back or career season, the goaltending has improved multifold, they have not run into any serious injuries to key players and everything they have touched has turned to gold – including the deal GM Bryan Murray made to acquire Kyle Turris from the Phoenix Coyotes for young, error-prone defenseman David Rundblad. (The Senators were 12-2-2 and Turris had 13 points in the first 16 games after the deal.)

SLICK STICK

Karlsson has developed a knack for knocking pucks off opponents’ blades.

And, of course, a big part of the reason for their success has been the surprising and meteoric upward trajectory of Karlsson, who has been freed from the shackles of a dumbed-down, chip-it-off-the-glass game and is free to carry the puck with authority and make the occasional mistake. Alfredsson has stopped counting the number of times Karlsson has lost the puck at the opposing blueline, only to bust his hump to get back into the defensive zone before anything disastrous could happen.

That, of course is the product of being such an incredible skater. A straw poll of the Senators indicates if there were a race around the rink, Colin Greening would finish first, Milan Michalek second and Karlsson a close third. But have them go from a dead start from blueline to blueline and Karlsson will have time to blowtorch the curve in his stick before anyone catches him.

And it is that kind of speed that makes Karlsson so effective at both ends of the ice. When he’s carrying the puck out of the offensive zone, he can blow by a forechecker and get into open ice with two or three strides. That creates an enormous amount of separation and allows the Senators to control the neutral zone much better. And his ability to get back into the play allows him to take the kinds of risks he needs to take to be an effective creator offensively. He has also developed a serpent-like stick that snares and suffocates pucks originally intended as opposition passes. It’s interesting to note that Karlsson was 13th in the league in takeaways (and first among defensemen) and 10th in giveaways – the former because of his quick stick and the latter because he handles the puck so much.

DANGLER ON DEFENSE

Karlsson loves handling the puck, so he tallies plenty of assists and giveaways.

But it’s his skating that is the most dazzling aspect of his game. Not only is he explosive, he’s one of the smoothest, most effortless skaters in the league today. “He can fly,” said teammate Jason Spezza. “Erik is the best skater I’ve ever played with, just the way he can change gears and control the flow of his game. It doesn’t seem like he’s ever in a bad position.”

The offense has emerged quite nicely, with him holding a double-digit lead in scoring among defensemen and all, while his previously maligned defensive game has improved tenfold. He’s not a big man by NHL standards, but he is getting stronger and his compete level around the net and along the boards has increased. One indication both he and the Senators are much better this year comes in the fact Karlsson finished last season minus-30 and went into late January plus-8. And they’re not cheap points he’s getting. Of his 38 assists this season, 17 of them put the Senators ahead in games to lead the league in that category. Three of his assists have come in overtime, which was tied for the league lead with Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings.

Senators color analyst Denis Potvin insists he sees a different body language in Karlsson during overtime, because he wants so badly to be the player who wins the game. Murray opined Karlsson would play 40 minutes a game if the coaching staff let him. Early in the season, MacLean remarked he didn’t mind playing Karlsson 30 minutes a game, but not if 15 were for the Senators and the other 15 were for the opponent. Good line. Effective one, too. “He’s been playing 25 to 27 lately,” MacLean said, “and they’re all for us.”

BEHIND THE BREAKOUT

Paul MacLean’s positive style pushes young Sens like Karlsson to new heights.

The Norris talk is not idle chatter, either. Potvin, who knows a thing or two about winning the trophy for best defenseman, thinks Karlsson is a legitimate candidate. Through the first half of the season, there were basically four rearguards who separated themselves from the pack and were Norris contenders: Karlsson, Lidstrom, Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators. Much will depend on what all four of them accomplish in the second half and it will be interesting to see which way the PHWA goes on this one after the season.

One thing working against Karlsson is age. Orr won his first Norris when he was 20, but he was a complete freak of nature. The next youngest was Potvin at 23, then Paul Coffey at 24, Randy Carlyle and Doug Wilson at 25 and Larry Robinson and Rod Langway at 26. Lidstrom didn’t win his first Norris Trophy until he was 31 and he hasn’t stopped collecting them since. Considering there is no position in the league harder to master than defense, the fact Karlsson is excelling at such a young age speaks volumes for his on-ice intelligence and skill level.

But will it be enough? It will be difficult to supplant Weber, who is having a monster season and should have won the award last year when Lidstrom captured his seventh. Naturally, Lidstrom can’t be counted out this season, while Chara is the best defenseman on one of the best teams in the league this season. “You talk about those guys and they’re actually really, really good players,” Karlsson said. “It’s fun to be in that talk, but I don’t think I have a shot at it.”

One thing he will do, unless he suffers either an enormous sag in production or gets injured, is break the Senators franchise record for points by a defenseman. The funny thing about that is the record is currently held by Norm Maciver, yeah Norm Maciver, who posted 17-46-63 totals and won the team scoring race by 15 points in 1992-93, the Senators’ first year of their modern history. That edition of the Senators distinguished itself as one of the worst teams of all-time, posting the third-worst points percentage ever and establishing or tying records for the longest losing streaks at home (11 games) and on the road (38). They played 41 games on the road that season and won one of them.

Another thing he will do is become a very rich man, particularly if he wins the Norris and/or leads all defensemen in scoring. His entry level contract, fortuitously, expires after this season and if you’re thinking a long-term deal somewhere in the $5 million to $7 million range, you’re on the right track. It won’t be Drew Doughty money or term (eight years, $56 million), but he should be able to see it from where he’s standing.

A few home playoff dates should make that salary increase an easier burden to bear for the Senators, a development nobody saw coming. This team was supposed to be putrid. Alfredsson looked like he was winding down a possible Hall of Fame career in ignominious fashion, Spezza was playing as though he wanted out of town, Sergei Gonchar looked as though he had completely lost it and two of their more diligent players, Chris Kelly and Mike Fisher, were traded away at the deadline. Perhaps picking them to finish last was a little harsh, but this was a team that looked like it was a lot closer to getting Nail Yakupov than even dreaming of making the post-season.

WE HAVE A FEELING WE HAVEN’T HAD IN YEARS – DANIEL ALFREDSSON

MacLean and a new coaching staff were the perfect fit for a team that had grown stale under the more dictatorial coaching style of Cory Clouston. MacLean came in and saw a group that had a good core of veterans who had been to a Stanley Cup final four years before and a younger collection of players who had gone back down to the American League after the Senators scorched the earth in the NHL and went on to win a Calder Cup. To be sure, there weren’t a lot of people outside of Ottawa who knew players such as Greening, Erik Condra, Zack Smith and Bobby Butler could be this good. Kaspers Daugavins? Who knew?

What people also have underestimated was the level of pride of the Senators veterans. The contribution of both camps cannot be discounted. The Senators are a harmonious, happy bunch whose veterans and youngsters seem to have a symbiotic relationship. But as much as the kids have stepped up and played beyond their potential, the key to their success has been the Senator veterans restoring their sense of pride and getting the careers back on the rails. If it’s true a little child (or children) shall lead them, it’s also true the experienced will pick it up somewhere along the line. “We knew the players that were here had been good players in the past, so they were probably still good players,” MacLean said. “Players don’t want to be bad. All players want to be good players.”

Few players have been better than Alfredsson, who had surgery last summer to relieve the pressure of a pinched nerve in his back. He is truly healthy for the first time in years, but more than that he’s been rejuvenated by the youthful core of players who have made things so much more enjoyable. The Senators play music all the time now. After games, on the bus, on the plane. Guys such as Alfredsson and Chris Phillips neither know it nor care for it, but they know exactly what it represents. This is now a team where the veterans don’t have to do all the heavy lifting. The younger players are not only accepting responsibility, they’re thriving on it. They’re also taking a more prominent role on the roster and making it easier for the veterans to see some hope where there was little of it before. “It feels fun to come to the rink,” Alfredsson said. “Before games, we have a good feeling in the room and we haven’t had that in a few years. It’s been a real grind for us.”

MASTER, APPRENTICE

Captain Daniel Alfredsson took his countryman Karlsson under his wing.

The Alfredsson-Karlsson relationship has been a microcosm of the veteran/young guy dynamic in the Senators dressing room. Both are Swedish and before playing in the NHL, they played for the Vastra Frolunda organization. But Alfredsson is a big-city guy from Gothenburg, while Karlsson comes from a small town almost three hours away by the name of Landsbro, which Alfredsson describes as being in “kind of like the foresty part of Sweden.” Then there’s the age difference. Alfredsson was a rookie in the NHL when Karlsson was five years old.

In fact, Karlsson used to control Alfredsson in his video games.

But the two make it work. It helps Alfredsson opened his home to Karlsson three seasons ago when Karlsson was an 18-year-old rookie. He lived with Alfredsson for his first season and loved his time with the family, but was eager to get out on his own. He left his small town in Sweden and had his own apartment in Gothenburg when he was 16 and was already pretty self-sufficient.

Alfredsson is looking forward to the day when Karlsson has kids of his own. “If you ask my kids, he ranks way ahead of me as their favorite player,” Alfredsson said, “not for what he does on the ice, more for what he does when he plays with them. You can tell in time he’s going to be a great dad.”

Anyone with two eyes in their head can also tell in time he’s going to be a great NHL defenseman. Heck, he already is. And as the Ottawa Senators continue their surprising emergence from the abyss, the young man from the foresty part of Sweden is leading the way.

By Ken Campbell
The Hockey News

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