The hype over Senators captain Erik Karlsson has reached staggering heights, and not even Rangers coach Alain Vigneault was left untouched.
As the Rangers and Senators prepare for Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Thursday in Ottawa, Vigneault was asked to compare Karlsson with his own captain and fellow defenseman, Ryan McDonagh. When faced with that comparison, Vigneault couldn’t help but heap praise on the opposition.
“I love our captain, but theirs, he is in a league of his own,” Vigneault said after Tuesday’s practice. “What he can do with the puck, the plays that he can make and the way he can see the ice, there’s no doubt that we’re going to have a real special plan for him.”
Karlsson is already one of three finalists for the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman — an award he has won twice already — and also could be a finalist for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. In 77 regular-season games, Karlsson had 17 goals and 54 assists, second in each category among NHL defensemen.
After averaging more than 30 minutes in each of his team’s six-game first-round defeat of the Bruins — accentuated by his jaw-dropping 41:51 of ice time in the team’s double-overtime loss in Game 5 — the 26-year-old Swede admitted to having two hairline fractures in his left heel dating back to blocking a shot against the Flyers on March 28.
That left his general manager, Pierre Dorion, to raise the level of rhetoric exponentially by saying this to reporters in Ottawa on Monday:
“They always say God rested on the seventh day; I think on the eighth day he created Erik Karlsson.”
Well, OK then.
Looking inside the Rangers’ locker room in an attempt to bring Karlsson back to mortality, it was hard to find. Fellow Swede Henrik Lundqvist has known Karlsson a long time, and the two often work out together in the offseason. Even from the goal crease, Karlsson’s skill is undeniable.
“You can stop him, you just have to be really good,” Lundqvist said. “He’s definitely one of the best players, he plays a big part in their success. Good skater, sees the game really well.”
Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad was teammates with Karlsson for most of the past four seasons before an offseason trade to the Rangers, and he came the closest to trying not to build Karlsson up too much.
“He’s their best player, but they have a lot of good players on that team,” Zibanejad said. “Try not to focus on him too much, but be aware of when he’s on the ice.”
Surely, Vigneault will want to dump the puck into Karlsson’s area and then have his team forecheck hard, hoping eventually to wear him down. But that’s easier said than done. Vigneault admitted Karlsson “has this offensive skill set that I don’t think there’s anybody in the league that has that offensive skill set. So it’s going to be quite a task for us as a team.”