Quick Thoughts: Eklund, Karlsson Show Their Best

“We’ve scored one goal in the last two games,” Bob Boughner acknowledged after tonight’s 4-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. “So the margin for error is almost nil.”

This shouldn’t happen to a team with “almost nil” margin for error:

Troisième match de suite avec un but pour Mike Hoffman.

Third straight game with a goal for Mike Hoffman.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/JwydfPrk8o

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 29, 2021

How do you lose a six-time 20-goal scorer like Mike Hoffman?

“It was a bit of a double-up situation there on that delay. [Brent Burns and Lane Pederson] went to the same guy,” Boughner offered. “Everybody else collapsed, but Hoffman got behind us.”

Of course, it’s going to happen over the course of a 60-minute game – there’s no such thing as a perfect game in hockey.

But of all the goals that the San Jose Sharks gave up to Montreal tonight, this felt the most like bad hockey. The other goals were an Alexander Romanov point shot through traffic and off a faceoff, a Brendan Gallagher power play goal off a Josh Anderson shot-pass that was going way wide, and an empty netter.

Things like that happen – the Hoffman goal shouldn’t.

Signs of Secondary Scoring?

The San Jose Sharks, however, should be encouraged by how much 5-on-5 offense another trio other than the Logan Couture line generated for them tonight.

I outlined earlier today how dominant the Couture line has been this season:

More Questions That Could Make or Break the Sharks’ Season

Tomas Hertl, Rudolfs Balcers, and William Eklund impressed Boughner tonight:

Boughner was encouraged by how much offense the Hertl line created tonight: "That line was good for us. Rudy's been snakebitten…That's a good sign that they're getting those looks. I thought that Eklund played well on that line as well. It's just a matter of sticking with it."

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 29, 2021

Case in point, per Natural Stat Trick, Balcers enjoyed an on-ice 12-2 Shots, a 13-2 Scoring Chances, and a 5-1 High-Danger edge at 5-on-5. Now that’s tilting the ice. Granted, the Sharks were behind and chasing the game – conditions conducive to score effects and more offense – but it’s a good sign that San Jose could prove to be more than a one-line team soon.

This was the norm tonight, Eklund setting up his teammates in dangerous scoring areas:

William Eklund just clowning on the Habs. #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/dd071pQ13a

— Dylan Griffing (@GriffingDylan) October 29, 2021

The San Jose Sharks rookie also led all skaters, per SPORTLOGiQ, with four Slot Shots on Net – so he wasn’t just a pass-first guy tonight.

William Eklund finishes a long shift with a great scoring chance, but he is denied by Jake Allen. #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/JkW4xNt1Hr

— Dylan Griffing (@GriffingDylan) October 29, 2021

Karlsson’s Best?

The Erik Karlsson “Is he or isn’t he back?” narrative must be draining for San Jose Sharks fans.

So I’m not going to make a big deal about tonight – I do think this performance is the best he’s looked this season – but we saw this wax-and-wane show last year too.

But I want to give credit where credit is due because I’ve been hard on Karlsson over the last couple weeks. Here are some standout EK65 stats tonight:

• Karlsson (23:35) played more than Burns (23:14) tonight. That, of course, hasn’t been the norm, as Burns has become the unquestioned No. 1 defenseman on the San Jose Sharks over the last year – Burns has averaged almost three more minutes a night than Karlsson since the beginning of last season. This is the first time this year that Karlsson has played more than Burns, a sign of how much the coaches liked his game tonight.

• Karlsson piled up a game-leading 12 shot attempts tonight, his first foray into double digits in this category this year. It’s a mark of how active he was on offense, and by extension, how nimble he looked getting to pucks. For further context, Karlsson reached double-digit shot attempts in a game just twice last year and just once in 2019-20. In 2018-19, he achieved this feat 12 times. In 2017-18, 12 times also.

• Per SPORTLOGiQ, Karlsson led all skaters with 1:01 Offensive Zone Possession Time in All Situations – closest to Karlsson was Jonathan Drouin at 00:47. I wrote this last year, but Karlsson at his best is holding the puck, confident in his abilities to elude pressure. That was the case tonight.

• Karlsson was just as good exiting the zone – he led all skaters with 10 Controlled Exits. In his heyday, Karlsson was invaluable as a one-man breakout to relieve pressure, and this hearkened back to those days.

FWIW I've liked Karlsson's game a lot tonight — all the good from his still-present elite offensive instincts, very little negative from too risky play

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 29, 2021

Anyway, I don’t want to make too big a deal of it – it’s just one game. Karlsson has teased us plenty with a turn-back-the-clock game here and there over the last two years. It’s on him to emulate a Timo Meier and put together a string of consecutive great performances if he wants to reclaim his mantle as the Sharks’ top defenseman and one of the best players in the world.