The Ottawa Sun observes that asked Wednesday how much defending Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson has improved in his own zone from last season, Senators coach Paul MacLean was succinct.
"I think he's improving," MacLean said of the 22-year old known simply as 'Karl' among friends. "He hasn't gotten worse, that's for sure. I think the defensive part of his game, he learns more about it all the time.
"I'd say he could be the best player in the league," added MacLean. "We haven't seen all the teams, but I know that if you have the puck all the time, you don't have to defend. Quite often he has the puck -- so he doesn't have to defend."
One thing is for sure -- nobody controls the tempo of a game the way the speedy Karlsson does from the Senators' back end. And but a very few are relied on more than the Senators do their No. 65.
Against the Sabres, Karlsson logged 31:15 of ice time, which was actually a bit of a break from the 32:08 he worked in Sunday's 2-1 loss to the Habs. Only twice did he play more than 31 minutes in 2011-12 -- when he was on for 32:44 during a 3-1 loss to St. Louis Feb. 7 and the 32:39 he saw in an overtime win over New Jersey Jan. 2.
"I feel great," Karlsson said Wednesday at Scotiabank Place. "I feel I can play more, if I can. Got to limit it somewhere, but as long as my body feels good, I don't have issues playing a lot of minutes."
Karlsson doesn't believe he's yet played his best hockey this season, which also bodes well for the Senators if true.
"Experience has a little bit to do with it, obviously," he said. "I'm just trying to figure out things every day. There's always situations out there when you don't really know what to do, and you have to think a little more. Defensive zone (play), I've been working on ever since I got in the league, and I'm going to keep working on it until I get out of it."
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