Let me preface this post by saying that this is intended as an exercise in thought https://www.ottawafansstore.com/Matthew_Peca_Flag-180 . I don't necessarily believe what I am going to discuss, but I think that it would make something interesting to talk about. Unfortunately, I'm not a good stats guy, but if anyone has particular numbers they'd like added, they're very welcome to post them in comments, and I'll add them to this text. I don't often write, so I hope that you forgive any discrepancies in readability https://www.ottawafansstore.com/Wade_Redden_Pillow_Cover-226. Allow me to introduce a thought; a crazy thought. Erik Karlsson needs to go. Now, hopefully you've kept reading, if so, you'll want to continue as I explore this notion. Erik Karlsson is to the Senators what Price is to the Habs; a shield, a mask, a distracting spectacle. Karlsson is so dominant that he makes us look miles better than we probably are. Sure, he isn't always on the ice, but we don't usually look NHL calibre when he isn't. By losing Price to injury early in the season, all the holes in Montreal's team became very noticeable. No longer was there a massive safety net. Therrien looks bad with the key to his strategy missing, Subban no longer looks like a solid two-way defence man (not that he ever really was), the lack of consistent scoring is crippling. All these were happily ignored so long as they had Price. Karlsson masks many of Ottawa's problems as well. He does everything short of scoring 50 goals, and being goalie (he almost does that, too, with all that shot blocking). What if we didn't have him? We would be atrocious. Erik Karlsson is our backbone, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, that ought to be a good thing. Problem is, so long as Karlsson is playing for us, he'll make us seem a fair bit better than we are. So long as we have this mask, management can get away with ignoring the inconsistency, much like Montreal did https://www.ottawafansstore.com/Kevin_Mandolese_Hoodie-318, because his dominance makes it look like if we played just a little bit better we'd be great. The other side of that hope, the negative side, is that it denies the notion that we won't get better. I'm not saying we can't get better, we could. I'm saying that perhaps it's not just management, but the whole team that relies on Karlsson too heavily. There is a dangerous thought that seems to infiltrate the media: Ottawa lost because Karlsson didn't play well enough. That is exactly what we want to avoid becoming the accepted thought. If our team begins to shift all responsibility of performance onto Karlsson, they would help significantly with our teamwork. Karlsson is a speed, and skill player; he is not a grinder. Cameron and Murray demand a trade to Washington to win the cup?PollHow should we lose Karlsson14%Injury (6 votes)26%Sell for pieces (11 votes)33%Trade to playoff team to win a cup (14 votes)28%Awkward emergency trip to Sweden debacle (12 votes)43 votes total
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