Do Erik Karlsson's New Teammates In San Jose Already Hate Him? According To This New Video, Possibly!!
Wow. Some truly shocking, and somewhat troubling, video coming out of San Jose last night in the midst of their 5-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres. Erik Karlsson was possibly the biggest acquisition of the 2018 NHL offseason. Perhaps even more so than John Tavares going to Toronto. San Jose trading for Karlsson over the summer said one thing and one thing only–that this team’s goal is to win the Stanley Cup this year or it’s a bust. Karlsson is in the final year of his contract before he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent on July 1st so there’s nothing that says he needs to stay in San Jose longer than this season. You’d think the Sharks would try to include the guy a little more in order to convince him to stick around and sign there long term. But that didn’t seem to be the case on the bench last night after Joe Pavelski scored to make it a 4-1 game.
Karlsson is clearly excited about his new team’s success. He wants to share that joy with the rest of the boys. So he reaches down the line to dap up the squad. Joakim Ryan is there to offer him a healthy fist bump right away. But when Karlsson gets to Justin Braun, he is left completely hanging. There is no return dap to be seen. Heck, there’s not even eye contact to be made. All Erik Karlsson wants to do is celebrate a goal scored with the boys. And Justin Braun can’t even be bothered as much as to look at the guy. Do the San Jose Sharks secretly hate Erik Karlsson? Look at Vlasic’s face. He couldn’t care less about Karlsson’s jubilation. He just wants him out of his personal space. To me, this seems like a locker room divided. A team destined to fail. And if I’m Erik Karlsson, then only thing I can think about after watching this video is “get me the fuck outta here”. But here’s some good new for EK65.
I know a team who could use a guy with his skillset. And not only could they use a guy like Karlsson, but they’d welcome him on the team with open arm. That team? Well it’s the Philadelphia Flyers, of course.
Karlsson to Philly on July 1, 2019. Lock it in.