MAKING A GOOD SEN-PRESSION

Paul Coffey a fan of Karlsson’s game

The president of the Erik Karlsson fan club admits that he is biased.

Thirty years ago, that was Paul Coffey out there. He was that slick-skating risk-taker who played the game as though he was out on the pond. He was the defenceman in a forward’s body. A three-time Norris Trophy winner who some joked had never set foot in his own end.

Coffey’s response was always that anyone could play defence. Anyone could block shots, dump pucks deep and stay back in their own end. That was the easy part. What made him so special — and what makes Karlsson so special — is that he was not afraid to take chances and become a difference maker.

“He plays the game the way it should be,” said Coffey. “The way that Karlsson plays is all hard work, that’s why other guys can’t do it. He’s a risk-taker and not in a bad way. He’s not happy just being the captain of the Senators. He wants to make an imprint on the game and that gets a lot of respect from me.”

Not everyone shares that view. Karlsson, who is third in scoring with 60 points in 55 games — one behind Jamie Benn and 16 points back of Patrick Kane — is close to becoming the first defenceman since Coffey in 1983-84 to finish as the runner-up to the Art Ross Trophy. But there remains debate over whether the Ottawa Senators captain should win his third Norris Trophy.

It is the same old question: is offence or defence more important when evaluating a defenceman?

Coffey had 40 goals in 198384, a 48-goal season two years later and reached the 100-point mark five times in his career. He retired second on the all-time list among defencemen with 1,531 points in 1,409 games. But because he played the position as though he were auditioning for a role on Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux’s wing, the Hall of Famer was not always regarded as the league’s best defenceman.

The year he finished second in league scoring with 126 points — “I would have beat Gretzky if I played two more games,” he joked of Gretzky’s 205 points in 198384 — Coffey lost to Rod Langway, a stay-at-home defenceman who had nine goals and 33 points that season.

“Good for Rod, he was a great player and a solid defenceman,” said Coffey. “Rod deserved the Norris Trophy, but it is harder to get up the ice and compete and be offensive than it is the other way. The other way is just commitment.

“If you didn’t score, you didn’t get paid. It’s just how it was back then. But if I had known that blocking shots and dumping pucks around the boards would give me $5 million a year, maybe I would have done it more.”

Karlsson is tied for 15th in blocked shots (111), but no one would confuse him with Langway. He is logging the most ice time, but he does not always play on the penalty kill and often relies on his defence partner to back him up in the defensive zone when he is joining the rush or making a pinch.

If you were basing the Norris Trophy on defensive play, Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty would get the edge. He has a better plus-minus rating than Karlsson and has better possession numbers. But if you’re looking at offensive production, there is no debate. Doughty and Karlsson both have 11 goals this season, but Karlsson’s 60 points are almost double Doughty’s 33 points. And on a team with only one 20-goal scorer, Karlsson’s league-leading 49 assists are impressive.

“It’s hard to get those points,” said Coffey. “I like Doughty and I can’t figure out why he doesn’t get more points, because he plays a ton on the power play and the guy is a tremendous talent. Karlsson’s not happy getting five goals and 35 assists. I like that.”

The apples-versus-oranges Norris Trophy debate is why some have suggested that a separate award is created for the best defensive-defenceman — or offensive defenceman.

“That debate’s been there forever,” said Coffey. “You’ve got your list of great defencemen — like Doughty, Duncan Keith, Shea Weber, (Victor) Hedman and others — but you’ve got to do something. You’ve got to be a 75-point, 80-point guy to be in that discussion.”

When it was suggested that Karlsson could end this debate by focusing more on his defensive game, Coffey laughed. It’s not that simple, he said.

“So if he says, ‘I’m going to bear down in the defensive zone and not take any more chances,’ you’re going to say, ‘what happened to his offence?’” said Coffey. “It’s the same stuff I went through. You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. But you have to play to your strengths. If you’re a hockey fan, how can you not like him?”