With the midway point of the season having passed, the Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves well-positioned in a tight Eastern Conference playoff picture.
But things are far from guaranteed, as the jockeying continues daily between clubs like the Penguins, Islanders, Bruins, Sabres, Maple Leafs and other contenders separated by only a few points.
Laterly, the Penguins (25-14-11) have maintained momentum minus arguably their most versatile player: defenseman Erik Karlsson, who sat the last five games on injured reserve with an undisclosed ailment before being activated Thursday night in Edmonton.
It’d be a stretch to dethrone Sidney Crosby as the Penguins’ most irreplaceable player, but Karlsson’s absence left a surplus of minutes that needed to be covered.
“He plays so many big, important minutes for us,” forward Bryan Rust said. “Obviously, all special teams, all situations. He’s a guy that (without), I think everybody’s going to have to kind of step up. He is a big part of our team, and I think everybody here knows that. We’ve all got to kind of step up a little bit.”
Before returning against the Oilers, Karlsson last played Jan. 11. Despite his absence, he continued to lead the Penguins in minutes (23:46) and shifts (24.0) per game.
In the Penguins’ 6-2 win over the Oilers, Karlsson logged 19:58.
Entering Thursday, his 3:04 of nightly power-play time was tied for second on the club behind only Rust and Crosby, while Karlsson has also stepped up as a regular penalty-killer this season, seeing an average of 2:18 shorthanded per night.
Other than Rust and Kris Letang, Karlsson is the only Penguins player to average at least a minute per night on both special teams units.
“Situationally alone, he eats minutes,” fellow defenseman Connor Clifton said. “He’s a highly impactful player in every game that he’s in. He gets anywhere between 24 to 28 (minutes), right? He gets a lot of the game. So, we obviously have to step up here a little bit. And that’s collectively.”
This current stretch constitutes the first time Karlsson has missed any action as a member of the Penguins, having joined the organization in a blockbuster trade from San Jose in the summer of 2023.
When he didn’t suit up Jan. 13 against Tampa Bay, it snapped a team-high 208 straight games played by Karlsson, who turns 36 in May.
But over his five-game absence, the Penguins went 3-1-1.
Naturally, coach Dan Muse had to tinker with the nightly lineup card as a result of Karlsson being unavailable.
To start, Muse kept together Letang and Brett Kulak, usually the Penguins’ second defensive pairing, but shifted them to the top deployment.
Parker Wotherspoon, Karlsson’s regular partner, was paired with Jack St. Ivany while Ryan Shea (who’d been skating next to St. Ivany) teamed up with Clifton, back in the lineup after a stretch of being scratched.
That defensive deployment largely held when Karlsson was out, with the exception of Shea moving in next to Wotherspoon starting Jan. 19 in Seattle and Ryan Graves entering the lineup in place of St. Ivany.
However, then Kris Letang went down, missing the Penguins’ back-to-back games in Calgary and Edmonton with a injury, while Graves was put on injured reserve Thursday ahead of puck drop against the Oilers.
On the power play, with Karlsson down, it had been Letang slotting onto the first unit with Crosby, Rust, Rickard Rakell and Evgeni Malkin.
Without Karlsson, the power play went 3 for 14 (21.4%) over five games, while the penalty kill, continuing a very hot stretch that dates to mid-December, was 14 for 15 (93.3%).
The original plan for Karlsson was to be reevaluated two weeks after originally being placed on injured reserve, which would have been Jan. 27.
Instead, Karlsson’s speedy recovery gives the Penguins back one of their most important players as the club aims for a West Coast road trip sweep Sunday in Vancouver.
“I thought guys did a good job there while he was out,” Muse told reporters in Edmonton pregame. “Somebody goes out, guys got to pick up different minutes, different responsibilities, different roles at times. Credit to the guys while he’s out, but obviously, excited to have him back.”
