San Jose Sharks: Erik Karlsson injury update

What’s Erik Karlsson’s status for Game 6 of the Western Conference Final? The San Jose Sharks need him.

Remember that blown call in game three of the Western Conference finals? The one that resulted in a sharks overtime goal and victory? Well, the St. Louis Blues are playing with that in their review mirror, as they returned to San Jose to beat the San Jose Sharks by a score of 5-0 Sunday in Jordan Binnington’s first-ever playoff shutout. And now they might not have Erik Karlsson.

As if going down 3-2 in the series wasn’t bad enough, San Jose fans had to watch their fair share of players get injured over the course of the game. Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski were both injured late in the game and did not return.

Also injured was Karlsson, who has played throughout the playoffs after an injury kept him out of the Sharks lineup for most of the late regular season.

Karlsson’s injury problems are no surprise, as he missed 27 of the Sharks last regular season 33 games with a lower-body injury. He returned to seemingly full health for the playoffs and has yet to miss a game.

Critics started to notice something amiss with Karlsson starting in game four, a 2-1 Blues victory in St. Louis after the star defenseman missed the closing minutes of the one-goal game.

"Karlsson was in obvious discomfort midway through the third period of Friday’s game, a 2-1 Sharks loss. He missed a handful of shifts late in regulation time before he was able to come back for the final two minutes, when the Sharks pulled goalie Martin Jones and made one final push."

Even though he returned for game five in San Jose, Karlsson only played for the first and second period. In those two periods, he only logged 10:32 of ice time, after averaging over 25 minutes all playoffs. Even worse, Shawn P. Roarke of NHL.com made the same observations after game 6 that the Mercury News made in Game 5.

"The biggest loss was Karlsson, who played 10:32 in the first two periods, but was clearly laboring even when he did play. Karlsson has 16 points (two goals, 14 assists) in 19 Stanley Cup Playoff games."

While there’s never a good time to get injured during the playoffs, Karlsson’s injury couldn’t come at a worse game as the Sharks face elimination. Even making the stakes higher is that Karlsson is on the final year of his contract, and can become an unrestricted free agent after this season. After the Sharks season ends, whether it be at the hands of St. Louis or victorious in a Stanley Cup championship, they risk losing Karlsson for nothing on July 1st.

With that, expect the Sharks to get whatever they can with Karlsson while they still have him. The Sharks are going to go for broke with Karlsson and make every effort to make something out of his only guaranteed season with San Jose. Considering how high the expectations were when he was traded to the Bay Area, nothing short of a championship to be exact, it seems like the Sharks have no choice. Trying to go anything short of the full distance while they have Karlsson’s services would be nothing short of a disappointment.

San Jose clearly only has Karlsson in its short-term plans for the time being. If they had any worries about Karlsson’s performance next season, or how this lingering lower-body injury would affect him, they most likely would have sat him in game five, but instead opted to play him in limited minutes.

While they remained cautious, head coach Peter DeBoer, who has had a good deal of success with San Jose, also proved that pulling Karlsson from the lineup was never an option until the game had clearly slipped away from their grasp. The Sharks are clinging to their cautious optimism that Karlsson will lead them to a Stanley Cup this season.

Let this be a tale of caution for Karlsson’s next landing-place not to lean on him too heavily. His injury history this past season has no doubt hurt Karlsson’s free agency value, but if the Sharks can’t find a way to keep him around, they’ll be no shortage of suitors lining up for his services.

When those teams try to court Karlsson, they’ll have images of the 25 minute a night, almost point a game defenseman running through their heads as they write their checks. They should know that the 10 minutes a night, reoccurring lower-body injury version of Erik Karlsson is also what they’re buying into.

Baring a catastrophic injury, there’s no doubt Karlsson will play in game six. It might be San Jose’s last chance to have the defender they had such high hopes to be on their side of the ice. Unfortunately, anything short of a championship will render Karlsson’s tenure in San Jose forgettable.