Since Feb. 22, he has 52 points (22 goals, 30 assists) in 46 games, 11th in the NHL and first among players 25 or younger.<\/p>\n
Carlsson said when he returned to the Ducks from 4 Nations, it felt like the game slowed down. The puck started going in, and things started to snowball in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you play more and more years and games in this league, I feel like you\u2019ll of course develop parts in your game, but you also understand what makes you successful,\u201d said Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond<\/a>, who also played for Sweden at 4 Nations. \u201cI think that\u2019s just a product of that. It\u2019s real fun to see. He\u2019s really good player, and I think he\u2019s going to be a big player in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlsson worked on gaining strength and speed in the offseason in Sweden.<\/p>\n When he reported to training camp in Anaheim this season, he had a new coach in Joel Quenneville, who had won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, 2013 and 2015 and recorded more regular-season wins (969 entering the season) than anyone but Scotty Bowman (1,244).<\/p>\n Quenneville\u2019s style has helped Carlsson.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re making a lot of plays off the rush, and I just think for him, especially as a young player \u2026 There\u2019s less thinking in our current system,\u201d linemate Troy Terry<\/a> said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more just reads and playing hockey. You see it if you watch him for five minutes. He\u2019s incredibly smart. I think he\u2019s just playing more free. He\u2019s just trusting his instincts more and just playing.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlsson agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not doing whatever I want, but [I have] that mindset a little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cJust do good things with the puck in the right situation. I\u2019m playing more freely.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlsson is playing more period, averaging 19:18 of ice time, more than three minutes more than he did last season (16:14). Playing in all situations, he has two shorthanded goals, tied for first in the NHL.<\/p>\n He\u2019s learning how to use his added strength, fighting through checks, protecting the puck and making plays in tight spaces. He\u2019s deferring to older players less and shooting the puck more, averaging 2.67 shots per game, more than one more shot than he did last season (1.5).<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like he has the puck more, coming up with more loose pucks,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cHis speed through the middle is noticeable.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlsson had 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) during an 11-game point streak from Oct. 21-Nov. 11, helping Anaheim go 9-2-0 over that stretch.<\/p>\n When he scored two goals in a 4-1 win at the Winnipeg Jets on Nov. 11, he became the only player in Ducks history to reach 25 points in 15 games. Hockey Hall of Fame forward Teemu Selanne<\/a> had 24 points in 15 games in 1995-96.<\/p>\n When he scored the Ducks\u2019 goal in a 4-1 loss at the Avalanche on Tuesday, he reached 100 points (43 goals, 47 assists) in 147 games in his NHL career. At 20 years, 320 days, he became the youngest player in Ducks history to reach the milestone, passing Hockey Hall of Fame forward Paul Kariya<\/a>, who did it at 21 years, 109 days, on Feb. 2, 1996.<\/p>\n \u201cHe hasn\u2019t been in the League that long, but he\u2019s playing major minutes, he\u2019s playing against the top players and he\u2019s producing, which is not easy in the NHL,\u201d Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom<\/a> said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m very impressed with the way he\u2019s played so far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Feb. 22, he has 52 points (22 goals, 30 assists) in 46 games, 11th in the NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-287090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}