The bye week is a perfect time for an elite Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman to regroup and come back stronger.

PITTSBURGH – With the Pittsburgh Penguins on their bye week, there are a handful of players who should use the down time to regroup and prepare to come back stronger for the final push for the postseason. While names like Reilly Smith and Rickard Rakell come to mind right away, no one could use a reset more than Erik Karlsson.

It might seem strange to say a player coming off a 10-game point streak needs to play better, but everything outside of those bits of offense has been questionable from Karlsson. It came to the point where he was finally taken off the top power play unit as a consequence.

Karlsson started the year showing a better defensive game than many expected, but that quickly faded away. Ever since losing Marcus Pettersson as his linemate, Karlsson has struggled to maintain consistency on the defensive side of the puck.

In the last few contests, Karlsson has been on the ugly end of numerous odd man rushes against. Those chances have forced Penguins netminders to make far more heroic saves than they would like. Especially considering these goalies aren’t perfect and are going to miss those golden scoring opportunities often.

Karlsson leads Penguins defenders in points but holds a plus-nine rating on the year. For context, during his streak, despite 11 points in that time, he hit a minus-four rating. Even while adding offense, he’s given up more than he’s scored.

The offensive production overall has been solid, but the Penguins aren’t seeing a complete game from Karlsson. His poor decision making with the puck has forced the coaching staff to finally pull him off the first power play unit.

Karlsson’s aversion to shooting on the power play and looking for difficult passes has cost the Penguins far too many times. He’s making over $10 million per year and hasn’t played like it recently. The Penguins know Karlsson is a great player and has more to give, he just needs to find his footing when the season resumes.

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