What? Play him as a forward!?

Dumbest idea ever.

/Thread

Big Ev wrote:Bump again! Spez D was seriously on to something. Karlsson would be more of an asset as a forward IMO. He's built like a winger.

yes, my bet is on cocaine

I don't know why it's that ridiculous, but if he can't improve his game in the next year or two then it's a serious possibility (or he will become a PP specialist). You learn from mistakes, but he doesn't seem to be learning at all.

No offense to you or a lot of people in this thread here, but saying or suggesting moving Karlsson up front is a good idea or something that should be considered, it's beyond stupid.

Just because he has offensive flair and can move the puck doesn't mean he will make a good forward. Chris Kelly is great defensivly, does that mean he should be a D man? It's the same principal.

Moving the puck as a D man and jumping into the offense is not the same thing and being a forward. The term "4th forward" is used to poke fun of players like Karlsson and a guy liek Green, but make no mistake, they are not a 4th forward out there.

Karlsson's problem is he gets caught out of position and is thinking offense way too much right now. He's young and needs to be reigned in here and there, you are seeing it right now. If he's going to make mistakes, now is the time. You tend to make more when you get 30 mins of ice vs 15. He is now playing big mins against other teams top lines a lot of nights and they will force him to make mistakes... he doesn't have close to the expierence needed to overcome a lot of these mistakes right now, but he will. Again, he's 20 and still so young.

A thread like this really dumbs down just how just how hard it is to be a forward and just how special a player in as a Dman. Karlsson's game is perfect for the type of D man he is.

I agree. I actually think a lot of Karlsson's offensive gifts would be wasted if he was lining up on the wing.

Fine, but we need a good coach to work with him (not Luke Richardson who has other things on his mind), and he should do a ton of work in the summer in order to improve his game (maybe go to Gary Roberts' school haha).

Big Ev wrote:Fine, but we need a good coach to work with him (not Luke Richardson who has other things on his mind), and he should do a ton of work in the summer in order to improve his game (maybe go to Gary Roberts' school haha).

The Sens will have a new coach next year. I assumed it would be pretty much a for gone conclussion around here.

I meant a solid defence coach, not the head coach (although yeah that will help).

Big Ev wrote:Fine, but we need a good coach to work with him (not Luke Richardson who has other things on his mind), and he should do a ton of work in the summer in order to improve his game (maybe go to Gary Roberts' school haha).

Definitely needs to start weight-gaining, and needs to improve his pivoting.

But I think in a better (more puck-controlling/puck-moving) system he'll be more effective defensively. Having big, slow, bruising defenders is nice in a system like ours (or like ours in 2008-09) but they kind of create their own work.

I think Karlsson's confidence is relatively low at the moment and I think he may be a bit burnt out from playing the huge minutes he played earlier in the season (wasn't there a game where he was at 32 minutes or something?) but he's definitely had stretches this season where he's been excellent defensively and to say he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes suggests a pretty short memory.

Also, for some reason, he's been incredibly effective on the PK this year. Almost 80 minutes played (and he was on the first unit for a time) and only 4 PP goals against.

asq2 wrote:

Big Ev wrote:Fine, but we need a good coach to work with him (not Luke Richardson who has other things on his mind), and he should do a ton of work in the summer in order to improve his game (maybe go to Gary Roberts' school haha).

Definitely needs to start weight-gaining, and needs to improve his pivoting.

But I think in a better (more puck-controlling/puck-moving) system he'll be more effective defensively. Having big, slow, bruising defenders is nice in a system like ours (or like ours in 2008-09) but they kind of create their own work.

I think Karlsson's confidence is relatively low at the moment and I think he may be a bit burnt out from playing the huge minutes he played earlier in the season (wasn't there a game where he was at 32 minutes or something?) but he's definitely had stretches this season where he's been excellent defensively and to say he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes suggests a pretty short memory.

Also, for some reason, he's been incredibly effective on the PK this year. Almost 80 minutes played (and he was on the first unit for a time) and only 4 PP goals against.

That's the huge one. The forward always gets a step on him way too easily and he doesn't have the strength to take the man when he's lost that step.