Erik Karlsson out until Olympic break with shoulder injury

by DarrenM on Feb 5, 2010 12:04 PM EST Comment 10 comments

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Some bad news making the rounds today: rookie blueliner Erik Karlsson's shoulder injury from last night will keep him out until at least the Olympic break. He joins fellow youngster Nick Foligno on that injury timeline.

This is a huge loss for the Senators, as Karlsson had become their best offensive defenceman throughout their recent 11 game win streak. His speed and precision passing are unmatched on the Senators' blueline, and his absence was immediately noticeable in last night's game against the Vancouver Canucks. During the win streak, Karlsson assisted on 5 goals, had 18 shots and was +8.

Expect Alex Picard to take his place on the blueline until he returns from injury.

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If he’s on the same timetable as Foligno does that mean he’s out 6-8 weeks (or that minus whatever time Foligno’s been out)?

Cannot play with 'em, cannot win with 'em, cannot coach with 'em. Cant do it.

by Andrew J on Feb 5, 2010 1:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

They just said he’d be out until the Olympics, that’s all I meant by same time table.

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by DarrenM on Feb 5, 2010 3:45 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Son of a....

Great…our once weak defence that strengthened solely on the play of Karlsson now is right back to the mess it was before. Oh well, at least it’s only for 4 games, 3 of which are against struggling teams.

Just stick to the system Picard and no one gets hurt.

by Dr. Hansum B. Wunderful on Feb 5, 2010 1:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Solely on the play of Karlsson? I think you’ve been drinking too much of the EK kool-aid that’s been passed out around here lately.

Cannot play with 'em, cannot win with 'em, cannot coach with 'em. Cant do it.

by Andrew J on Feb 5, 2010 1:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Karlsson’s marked improvement is why the defense as a whole doesn’t look like it did a month ago. True, he’s not the all-world defenceman he’s going to eventually be, but you can’t see this defence getting BETTER with Alex Picard playing 20+ minutes a game do you? I see it getting worse.

by Dr. Hansum B. Wunderful on Feb 5, 2010 1:31 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

EK supposedly being the only reason why the defence is playing better has nothing to do with Picard’s effect on the team. They probably wont play better with 45 in the lineup.

Though if memory serves the team played decent hockey in October and November, with Picard usually leading the team in TOI around 23-24 minutes game (13-7-4 through Oct. & Nov.)

Cannot play with 'em, cannot win with 'em, cannot coach with 'em. Cant do it.

by Andrew J on Feb 5, 2010 2:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Damn it

He was really starting to thrive

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by Mark Parisi on Feb 5, 2010 1:34 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

That's really too bad

But I guess the Olympic break is a good thing in this sense. He won’t likely be rushed back, but he still won’t miss a ridiculous amount of games. The concern with a player like Karlsson, though, is that this sort of injury becomes a nagging problem. I sure hope it doesn’t.

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by PeterR on Feb 5, 2010 2:49 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Since the topic of EK has come up I just wanted to give a tip of the cap to Bryan Murray. He said before the season that EK was ready to make the team. He got off to a slow start and appeared not quite ready for primetime. BM sent him to the AHL for what pretty much everyone figured was the season only to be ballsy and bring him back up, burn a year of his contract on the hunch that he could actually help the team this year. I was among the doubters who thought he was crazy wasting a year on what had been a middling team to that point. Now it looks like we have a team prepped to do some damage in the playoffs, so kudos to BM for getting things back on track after the last 2 seasons.

by modsuperstar on Feb 5, 2010 3:34 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I'm not sure there were any people BUT doubters given how he started the year

I know I was one of them. I watched Karlsson in person in Phoenix and believed he’d need another year to put all the pieces together, though the pieces were obviously there. I’m truly impressed by how quickly he’s improved.

Murray deserves credit, but he didn’t have much to lose by giving Karlsson a chance. Few outside of Ottawa expected this team to make the playoffs.

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by Mark Parisi on Feb 5, 2010 5:46 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs