Ladies and gentlemen, Leo Carlsson has arrived. The second overall pick in this year’s draft made his NHL debut tonight against the Dallas Stars and proved he belongs in the NHL as an 18-year-old, scoring a goal and playing an overall great game against a true Stanley Cup contending team.
Carlsson’s style of play came as advertised: methodical, smooth, and flashed his playmaking abilities.
The hockey IQ was well known already, but Carlsson was excellent in anticipating the next play and played well without the puck. The Swedish teen looked like an owl on the ice, his head constantly rotating, making sure he knew exactly where everyone was so he could be a play ahead.
He used his 6’3, 198-pound frame to be physical in the sense that he was hard to move off the puck and held his own as a front-net presence. Carlsson will not deliver big hits, but he did a sufficient job clearing the front of the net when he had to.
The skating also stood out in this game. Carlsson was smooth in everything he did, and his strides allowed him to keep up with the speed of the game, as shown in his first NHL goal on a two-on-one where he joined the rush. Troy Terry gained possession in the Ducks’ zone along the boards at the hash marks, then he and Carlsson sprang out of the defensive zone and managed to break into a two-on-one, where Terry fed a perfect pass to Carlsson, who sniped it over the blocker of Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger.
The advanced metrics back up the eye test, too. According to MoneyPuck, Carlsson had a 65.8 Expected Goal Percentage at even strength against a Stanley Cup contender, and the top line of Carlsson, Terry, and Trevor Zegras also produced a 65.8 xG%. That top line was solid in preseason, with all three of them showing great chemistry together, and it carried over into tonight.
Carlsson showed everything that Ducks fans were hoping to see, the IQ, the passing, the skating, and his overall playmaking abilities. From the looks of it, Carlsson has the making to develop into a franchise cornerstone player.
As for the rest of the game, it was yet another impressive game soiled by penalties for the Ducks. The Stars ended up winning 3-2, with two of those goals coming on the power play. You cannot expect to win when you give a team like the Stars five opportunities on the power play. Plain and simple.
Penalties aside, the Ducks still played an overall solid game. The Ducks played exceptionally well at even strength in the first period, outshooting Dallas 17-7 and controlling the pace of play for essentially the entirety of the period.
The theme of second-period collapses from the last few years came back tonight for the Ducks. Dallas took complete control in this period, with the help of three Ducks penalties, and kept the Ducks to one measly shot on goal in the period. The Stars capitalized and netted two goals in the period to go to the final frame up 2-1.
In the third, the Ducks bounced back with Carlsson’s goal just a minute into the period. The Ducks played well enough, giving them a serious chance to win, but were unable to convert their scoring chances. Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen fired a pass to the front of the net that bounced off Cam Fowler’s skate and trickled past John Gibson for the eventual game-winning goal.
The Ducks outshot the Stars 29-24 but lost the expected goals battle at even strength 2.43-1.75, according to MoneyPuck.
Overall, this is yet another great showing for the Ducks, and it shows they are taking the proper steps into getting back into contention with their rebuild starting to come to a close. The youngsters are playing great, and the process is there, so if the Ducks can clean up the penalties, this will be a far more competitive Ducks team that we have not seen in five years.
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