Erik Karlsson Has 15 Points In His Last 6 Games Since His Suspension, Now The Western Conference Is In Big Trouble
It took a little bit of time for the Erik Karlsson era in San Jose to really get itself going. It makes sense considering Karlsson spent his entire career up until this point with the Sens and now he had to make adjustments to playing on a new team for the first time in about 10 years. But the thing I was really worried about when this trade happened is that it’s already an uphill battle for players in the Western Conference, especially on the west coast, to really get the amount of attention they deserve when it comes to national media. We don’t have to sit around and pretend like east coast bias doesn’t exist. There are so many players in the Western Conference who would be legitimate superstars if they played in an east coast market and there’s a reason why it took so long for Nathan MacKinnon to become one of the faces of the league. So when it took Karlsson 20 games to get his first goal of the season with San Jose, we really didn’t get a chance to see or hear much from one of the most electrifying players in the league.
Luckily that’s not the case anymore because EK65 is back to lighting the goddamn world on fire and has scored at least 1 point in every game he’s appeared in since December 7. Granted there was a 2-game suspension thrown in there right before the holidays so it’s technically not a true 14-game point scoring streak. But since coming back from his suspension, Karlsson has a goal and FOURTEEN goddamn assists in his last 6 games. Granted, he got to rack up 7 points in 2 games against the Edmonton Oilers over that span and the Oilers are a joke. But in his past six games, he’s had 3 games with 3 assists. As one hockey centric podcast would say, “nnnnootttt a big deeeaaaallll”.
And now we’re a little past the midway point of the season and Brent Burns is 1st in the league in defensive scoring with 49 points on the year and Karlsson has managed to get himself tied for 3rd in defensive scoring with 41. Having those two on the same powerplay might just constitute as wagon status, some may say.
14 straight games with a point for Karlsson. 15 points in his last 6. The San Jose Sharks are 11-2-2 in their last 15 games and just one point behind both Calgary and Vegas for 1st in the Pacific. It took them a while to really get themselves going here but the San Jose Sharks are officially a buzzsaw right now.
By the way–the top 3 teams in the Pacific are all in the top 4 in the league right now. But after that comes Anaheim, Vancouver and Edmonton all from 19-21. Just a slightly top heavy division there.