Big plays from Erik Karlsson something for Penguins to 'get excited about'

When Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas pulled off a three-team, nine-player trade to acquire defenseman Erik Karlsson in August, he probably had nights like Tuesday in mind.

The Penguins were looking to complete a comeback on the road against the Pacific Division-leading Vancouver Canucks when Karlsson alertly kept a loose puck in at the blue line about 90 seconds into overtime.

He danced around, through and between Canucks defenders Conor Garland and J.T. Miller to send teammate Reilly Smith up the left wing with the puck. A pass and a Lars Eller shot later, Karlsson was burying the rebound and the Penguins were celebrating their third straight win.

“I thought he really stepped up tonight,” coach Mike Sullivan said after the game. “He was an impact player for us. When you see him take his game to that level, that’s the game I think we all get excited about. I just think he’s getting more comfortable. The adjustment process has been a little bit longer than we had hoped, but we see more and more signs of him capturing his best game.”

The overtime winner represented Karlsson’s eighth goal and 43rd point of the season.

Those numbers aren’t bad. Only 10 NHL defensemen have more points.

They also pale in comparison to the 25 goals and 101 points Karlsson put up en route to winning the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in San Jose last year.

It wasn’t reasonable to expect Karlsson to repeat those numbers with the Penguins. After all, there have only been six defensemen in NHL history to record 100 points in a season, and the other five are in the Hall of Fame (Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis, Brian Leetch and Denis Potvin).

It doesn’t happen every year.

But it is reasonable to ask whether the Penguins are getting what they’re paying for in Karlsson, who is the 12th-highest paid player in the league with an $11.5 million salary.

When Karlsson went through a stretch with six points in 19 games from the middle of November through the end of December, it was reasonable for those questions to get louder.

Since Jan. 1, however, Karlsson has 20 points in 21 games. He was held off the scoresheet just three times during that stretch.

It’s also reasonable to expect that production, or something similar, to continue, largely because of Karlsson’s track record as a defenseman who pushes the pace offensively.

When Karlsson has been on the ice five-on-five this season, the Penguins have outshot their opponents by 100 (627-527) and outscored their opponents by 10 (50-40), according to naturalstattrick.com.

Those numbers don’t match the elite of the elite — the Edmonton Oilers are plus-225 in shots when Evan Bouchard is on the ice, and the Canucks are plus-31 in goals with Quinn Hughes — but they’re pretty good.

They’re enough to give Karlsson plenty of opportunities to make big plays like he did Tuesday night in Vancouver.

There are also a couple of factors working against Karlsson, however.

When he has been on the ice at five on five this season, the Penguins have a shooting percentage of 7.97%. Last year, the lowly Sharks shot 10.51% when he was on the ice.

If a few more pucks went in for the Penguins for whatever reason — better luck, more traffic in front, wingers who weren’t stuck in long scoring slumps — Karlsson’s numbers would look better.

And if there’s one area where Karlsson surely has not looked comfortable, it’s on the power play.

Karlsson leads the Penguins in power-play ice time this season (with about a minute more than Sidney Crosby), and the Penguins rank 28th in the league with a 14.8% success rate.

While there are plenty of reasons for that failure, it doesn’t reflect well on Karlsson.

Forty-six NHL defensemen have played at least 100 minutes on the power play this season. When sorted by team goals per 60 minutes of ice time, Karlsson ranks 30th (6.42).

If Karlsson were to put together a late-season scoring surge that would erase any questions about how comfortable he is in black and gold, the easiest path would be for the team’s power play to get its act together and the team’s wingers to find the net. Then, the points would come pouring in.

Of course, that’s easier said than done.