Ninetales

Stats shouldnt really be against the "watching the game" crowd and I donno why theres a need to separate them. Its not like i hate watching the actual games and just crunch numbers all day haha.

This seems to be one of those reputation reasons rather than how theyre actually playing. Campbell will always be sorely underrated i guess *sigh*..

I guess my main point with defensemen is that they shouldnt just be there to play in their own zone. That's a terrible strategy to have and why this

is not really true. If youre taking more shots for than against it stands to reason that youre spending more time in the opposing zone. And Karlsson does that.

Karlsson plays over 27min a night (3rd in the league) this year. He will make mistakes. The more time you are on, the more mistakes you are likely going to make, especially if youre playing on a team that isnt that good to begin with. Im willing to bet that the amount of mistakes he makes defensively, compared to guys like Pietrangelo or Weber is not nearly as high as people think especially when compared to what he does at the other end to offset those mistakes.

Also keep in mind that Karlsson has played the most time this year partnered with Cowen who is much more incompetent in his own zone than him. And second most is Methot. Not exactly playing with stars here. Ottawa is a much much better team with Karlsson, so I dont understand why he shouldnt be a Norris candidate.

NHL coaches do strange things all the time. MacLean put Neil on the pp for longer than Ryan, Turris and MacArthur combined against Boston. Just because Cowen gets more pk time than Karlsson doesnt mean hes better defensively (hes not). Personally I would put Karlsson out more on the pk but hey Doughty is 4th on his team in pk time below the likes of Willie Mitchell, Robyn Regehr and Matt Greene so what can ya do.