Scoring Struggles Clouding Perception of Penguins Defenseman
Erik Karlsson has come as advertised for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Erik Karlsson is playing in his 15th NHL season and his first as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The trade that sent him to Pittsburgh was one of the top headlines of the entire NHL last summer, and for good reason.
Karlsson is a future hockey Hall of Famer coming off his third Norris Trophy campaign and would be joining a Penguins team with two other future Hall of Famers.
With Karlsson and all of his offensive upside came an inherent risk. The risk is that the defensive zone will be abandoned more often than not by the 33-year-old Swede with a penchant for pinching in the offensive end.
A few months into his Penguins tenure, Karlsson has been as advertised. Sportsnet's Adam Vingan highlighted two stats from this season that encapsulate that perfectly.
Penguins opponents have scored ten goals within ten seconds of a Karlsson turnover this season, which leads the NHL. However, the Penguins have averaged 1.66 expected goals per 20 minutes (most in the NHL), with Karlsson on the ice in all situations.
Karlsson's scoring has dried up as of late, scoring our points (1G-3A) over the past 12 games after beginning this season with 17 points (5G-12A) in 16 games. This drought has left his detractors plenty of ammunition to criticize his performance and even the initial decision to acquire him by Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas.
A deeper look at his underlying numbers will show that while his scoring has regressed, his performance has not, thus leaving the likelihood of a positive regression to the mean very high in the coming weeks.
While the Penguins scoring has regressed with Karlsson on the ice at 5v5 in the last 12 games, dropping from 1.43 goals per game to 0.75, so too has the amount of goals they have given up 0.70 per game to 0.41.
Karlsson has struggled as of late to find the scoreboard, a fact that the Penguins need to change in the near future. But none of Karlsson's defensive deficiencies this season should come as a surprise and should not be the reason to label him as one of the team's primary issues.
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