Insane musings: Erik Karlsson is theproblem

Let me preface this post by saying that this is intended as an exercise in thought. 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. Allow me to introduce a thought; a crazy thought. Erik Karlsson needs to go. Now https://www.ottawafansstore.com/Zdeno_Chara_T_shirt-9 , 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 https://www.ottawafansstore.com/Dominik_Hasek_T_shirt-14 . If our team begins to shift all responsibility of performance onto Karlsson, they won't improve. Players are professional athletes, but they're also human. They aren't machines, they're just as vulnerable to thoughts of weakness, desires, misplaced ambition, greed; human problems. As nice as it would be if they were unshakeable, flawless supermen of Nietzsche-like ideals, they aren't.Who's to say if there isn't a lurking, even subconscious, thought in the locker room that their own performance is less important than Karlsson's. This poisonous thought only needs to be present in a few players for disastrous consequences. Maybe Cameron suffers from such a the actions would be easy to swallow, if they would make sense, or if they would even make a difference. What I do know, is that our team lacks an identity to rally behind, and it's killing us. The changes made in the wake of Karlsson's departure would likely give the team a coherent identity, which would help significantly with our teamwork. Karlsson is a speed, and skill player; he is not a grinder. Cameron and Murray seem to like grinding ideology. I was remarking, on Thursday, that we look like a bad Chicago; as though Cameron is trying to use Chicago's system without the appropriate pieces. We have a similar balance of skill : grit, so it's not a terrible idea, but we lack the skill where it counts. With Karlsson gone, and as a result https://www.ottawafansstore.com/Parker_Kelly_T_shirt-253 , no elite puck moving defence man, Cameron wouldn't be able to pretend that we have what it takes to play that sort of game. With Karlsson gone, I think the roster, as a whole, would change dramatically. The grinding game is on it's way out, but if our roster was at least one that was focused on making such a system work, I'm sure we'd look far better than we do now.Obviously, we'd do much better if we committed to speed and skill, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Revealing the team for what it is wouldn't be pretty, but it would be one hell of a wake-up call.Where would Erik Karlsson go? Is it by injury like Price that Karlsson leaves our team? Is he sold for a number of essentials towards making that coherent team identity? Does he 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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