So, I'm no Jesse Marshall, or anyone else that is able to break down film really well, but, I decided to go back and look at a couple of Sharks games to take a look at the "downside" of Karlsson, his defense.
I chose 5 games to review game highlights for SJ, and I chose these 5 games because Karlsson was a -3 in all 5 games. All 5 games are linked below if anyone wants to take a look at them.
--10-15-22 against Chicago,
--12-31-22 against Dallas
--2-9-23 against Florida
--4-8-23 against Edmonton
--4-13-23 against Edmonton
1) In the Chicago game, I didn't notice Karlsson being blatantly bad defending on the goals he was on for. 2 of them were SHG by...gasp...Sam Lafferty. Karlsson was either left alone, or just scrambled defense by SJ altogether because of the shorty chance. Another one, Karlsson got turned around at his own blueline because his teammates gave the puck away. The 4th one, he backoff the player coming down the slot and tried to stick block the shot or breakup the pass, but instead the player just...scored. Nothing in this game I saw where I was like "Wow, that IS really bad defending."
2) First goal against with EK on the ice, he had his man but was late to tie up his stick. He had a bad giveaway that led to a failed 2-1...last Stars player essentially had an open net but puck bounced over stick. Two Sharks forwards made consecutive turnovers at the red line on the PP leading to a SHG against; Karlsson was waiting for a pass at the red line with his other teammates. ENG led to his 3rd minus.
3) First minus against, EK makes a good play at the red line to force the puck back into Florida zone. Florida gets it up quickly to Reinhart, who has a 2-2 with EK slightly trailing, BUT, the other defenseman Harrington (yeah, the former Penguin) turns to cheat towards the other Florida forward, already covered by the other SJ forward. EK is able to get a half-stick check from behind on Reinhart, but Reinhart snaps a shot that beats the goalie. Poor play by Harrington, poor goaltending...Karlsson had help back, they just played it very poorly all around. 2nd minus, bad luck not bad positioning...puck just eludes EK at the red line along the boards...he beats FLA forward to the puck but can only get a weak clear attempt off the boards. SJ had numbers back 3 vs 2, but again, Harrington decides to overload 2 on 1 with EK, completely ignoring that there are 2 more FL forwards about to enter the zone. When EK can't clear, FL passes right to the open late man that Burroughs should have been covering. Harrington completely focuses on the trailer he should have been covering from the outset, yet totally ignores that he is also closest to the man he attempted to overload. Trailer passes back to him all alone for redirect goal. Final minus was a bad giveaway by EK on a PP with the goalie pulled at the end of the game that led to ENG.
4) First minus, EDM is flying, McDavid beats EK to the net but pushes shot wide. SJ looked like Penguins defense, completely losing track of who is covering who, and an Oiler is wide open where EK just was. Technically, EK's man was McDavid and someone else should have picked up the trailer that got a wide open goal to score on. 2nd minus, giveaway by EK on the PP at the top of the circles leads to 3-1 breakaway SHG by EDM. 3rd minus, 5-1 game late in the 3rd, EK has his man Kane at the blue line, but other d-man gets beat by McDavid 40 feet from EK for breakaway goal.
5) First minus, EK establishes good position at low side of faceoff circle, but overcommits and gets walked by Matias Janmark, leading to the goal. Poor play by EK there. 2nd minus, SHG breakaway by EDM...EK got a piece on the below the goal outlet pass by EDM, but not enough to break up the play. Not his fault. 3rd minus, Evander Kane slips into a soft spot. EK was there but technically not his man. Kane responsibility more on forward and other d-man who let him drift into the slot, and other d-man appeared to have been clipped in the face and was out of sync.
Overall, there were very few goals against in the series above where Karlsson was truly at fault with poor defense. One or two. Another one or two giveaways. The rest, I really thought were just horrible coverage by his teammates. Harrington had blinders on half the time with no awareness of anything he wasn't directly looking at in that split second.
The other thing I noticed...man, would I have loved to have found a way to get Barbanov in the EK deal. Maybe we can go after him at the trade deadline. In the goals for SJ in these 5 games, there were a lot of hookups between EK and Barbanov, and Barbanov was very noticeable most games.