New York. Congratulations to those of you who were awake and watched Leo Karlsson’s successful debut for Anaheim this morning.
It was a celebration that the blue-and-yellow witnesses will likely remember as everyone who was there remembers the games of Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, Niklas Lidstrom, Daniel Alfredsson, the Siddens brothers, Henrik Lundqvist and Elias Pettersson in their first NHL games.
Do I now understand what puts an 18-year-old in the same company as those icons after one match?
No, I’ve guarded it with a “maybe,” because there are no absolute guarantees that Leo Carlson’s North American adventure will be as glorious as, say, Sudden’s or Lida’s fairy tales.
But most things point to it, and the debut is certainly one of the most astonishing events I have witnessed in the decades I have followed the Swedes in the best hockey league in the world.
Not only did the youngster, as in another Buster story, score immediately – after a brilliant two-player with Troy Terry.
Nearby spilled coffee
In much the same way as his friend Conor Bedard had done in Chicago, by his courage, courage, zeal, and sharpness of mind, he made a distinct impression on almost every change.
A sequence midway through the third period, when the Ducks were seeking to tie the game against top-ranked Dallas, nearly caused me to spill a cup of coffee (decaf at the time, of course…) on my living room table at home. New York late hour.
The spooler was lurking and cutting like a strange Värmland creep around the blue line – and suddenly he caught the wrong pass almost before it could be shot, lunged forward into a free position and was on the verge of scoring the second goal of the opener.
God, when I was 18, I wouldn’t dare look into the eyes of my more experienced classmates. Leo Karlsson snatches the ball away from them on his debut, as if it was as natural as getting out of bed in the morning.
Frothing with talent in the bullpen
This first season will now be a test, if nothing else mentally. The Ducks are a weak team and will lose a lot of games – especially when the BSE subsides in October and the good teams start tightening up the game. It can be very difficult to be part of young people who are used to nothing but success when they were always the best players on the best teams.
But the bullpen is full of talent, and in a few years, when Leo, Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and Jamie Drysdale are adults, more interesting days will lie ahead. He’s a future contender brewing under the Southern California sun.
And when we get to that future, those of us who were awake last night will surely boast that we actually watched star Leo Karlsson’s first NHL game.