Knights center brings incredible Cup run into new season

The Golden Knights held a video session Monday morning to review their 5-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

Coach Bruce Cassidy wanted to focus on the team’s high forward on the forecheck and in the neutral zone. He emphasized the need to take the right angles to be in the best position possible to recover a puck, using video to show when it was done well.

Center William Karlsson was in “75 percent of the clips,” Cassidy said.

It’s rare for the Original Misfit to put a skate out of place when he’s on his game. He showed that in the playoffs when his incredible two-way performance was a catalyst for the Knights’ run to a Stanley Cup championship. The Karlsson that showed back up for work this season looks the exact same.

He has six points in six games so far, while his plus-5 rating at five-on-five is tied for the sixth-best in the NHL.

“He’s been unbelievable,” right wing Michael Amadio said. “(Penalty kill), D-zone and then he’s scoring. He does it all right now. He makes the game a lot easier when he’s out there.”

Karlsson pointed to one aspect of his game when asked about his season so far.

“I feel fast,” he said.

The problem for opponents? He felt fast in the playoffs, too.

Karlsson was a menace for every foe the Knights faced. His motor never seemed to run out. It didn’t matter whether he was starting, ending or in the middle of a shift. Karlsson would find a way to be in the right spot at the right time to throw a wrench into the opponent’s plans.

That style sometimes dictates that the stats don’t match the eye test. The subtle ways Karlsson affects the game up and down the ice don’t always scream as loud as the ones that appear on a box score.

That isn’t the case right now. Karlsson, after scoring 11 goals in 22 games in the postseason, is playing his normal brand of high-level defense while creating in the offensive zone as well. Cassidy compared it to what he’s seen in the past from Selke-winning centers like Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar.

Both are near point-per-game players for their careers, but they’re regarded just as much for their 200-foot games. “(Karlsson’s) a guy that just plays the right way and the right side of the puck,” Cassidy said. “It’s not hurting his offense. It really isn’t.”

What makes Karlsson’s opening stretch more impressive is he doesn’t have his usual running mate.

Left wing Reilly Smith, who for so long was on Karlsson’s wing in all situations, was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer. Karlsson has had three different players try to fill Smith’s skates through six games: Left wings Paul Cotter, Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden. He’s tried to play the same way with each.

“You can’t change for each other,” Karlsson said. “We are who we are, right?”

Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done.

That Karlsson is producing the same way with new people next to him is a credit to the consistency of his game. He appears unchanged from the player who kept producing in the postseason even with the Knights’ third all-time leading scorer no longer at his side.

The only developments that seem to have come for Karlsson since the playoffs are off the ice. He became a first-time father during the second round thanks to the birth of his son Beckham. This season he gets to have his son along for the ride the whole way.

Karlsson said it’s been fun now that Beckham is starting to develop a bit of a personality. He’s also showing signs of emulating his father in one key aspect: The long blonde hair that was once voted second-best in the league by the NHL Players’ Association’s annual poll.

“He’s got some pretty good hair, actually,” Karlsson said. “I have big hopes for him.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.