Star defensemen looks to find consistency and make the most of his second season in Pittsburgh

After missing the entirety of training camp and getting thrown right into the mix during the regular season, Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson is settling in.

"I feel pretty good, as you should, I think," Karlsson said. "Some ups and downs."

When surveying Karlsson's results from his first season in Pittsburgh - he registered 11 goals and 52 points over all 82 games - many might also say there were "ups and downs." By all accounts, that has always been part of the "Karlsson experience": a frustrating turnover one second, then a brilliant play on the other side of things that very few players can make. 

This season, Karlsson and the Penguins hope to see the latter with a bit more consistency, as he has shown that brilliance throughout his 16-year NHL career as one of the very best defensemen of his generation, if not the best. 

"I think he's had some real strong moments, I think he's had others where he hasn't been at his best," head coach Mike Sullivan said of Karlsson's performance so far this season. 

But Sullivan realizes that, because Karlsson did miss training camp, getting his best might take a little bit of time to fully come into focus this season. He mentioned that fatigue could be a factor and that they're trying to get him into game shape on the fly, which has been a challenge with their schedule to start the season.

And they also rely on Karlsson to log a ton of minutes.

"In my experience in coaching guys over the years, when players are in a fatigue state, maybe the biggest thing that gets affected is their decision-making ability," Sullivan said. "So that's our challenge with Karl moving forward, is to try to find a way to continue to work on his conditioning while he's playing a significant amount of games. The games themselves will help, but we've gotta work with him to try to get his conditioning up to speed where it needs to be in order for him to be at his best more consistently." 

Last season, Karlsson saw pretty significant minutes alongside three different defensive partners, in addition to the time spent with Kris Letang in offensive overload situations. He's starting to feel more comfortable in the Penguins' system so far this season, and having a consistent defensive partner in Marcus Pettersson has helped.

"Everything's not new, so that's nice," Karlsson said. "You're still going to have your ups and downs, but I think me and 'Petey' have a great relationship on the ice and off the ice. We know what to expect of each other. We know when we make a mistake and when we do something good. It's a very easygoing partnership, I think." 

But it hasn't all been familiar this season for Karlsson. He is also navigating the challenge of learning a new position on the power play half-wall, something he has not done throughout his career. 

He feels like he's getting better and better, and the veteran defenseman is having fun with the challenge of learning something new in the later stages of his career.

"It's exciting," Karlsson said. "It's fun to be in Year 16 and try and learn something new, and try and progress in areas that you haven't before. I think, so far, our power play has been pretty good. I know we can be a lot better, I think that's like it always is. You can always improve. And there's going to be times where it's not going the way that you want. But I think overall, our setup and our philosophy is what it should be and we've got to keep progressing from day to day."

He also said things with the power play feel more natural in a general sense this season.

"Yeah, a little bit," he said. "I don't think our expectations are as high as they were last year in a sense, which, maybe, makes us a little bit more relaxed out there and not as frustrated when it doesn't go the way that we want. So far, it's been working for us. It's not always pretty, but we've been scoring some timely goals, and it's won us a couple of games. That's what we're gonna need from the power play."

It goes without saying that Karlsson is going to be a crucial factor in the team's fortunes this season, both on the power play and at five-on-five. He already has five points in seven games up to this point, and he's fourth out of all Penguins' skaters in expected goals share (xGF%) at 56.6 percent.

Luckily, for the Penguins - despite a missed camp - it seems he is up for the challenge.