- Karlsson set up Marner’s natural hat trick in the Knights’ 6-2 Game 3 win Friday
- The Original Misfit returned in Game 1 after sitting since November 8
- Read below for video and what Hutton, Eichel and Marner are saying about Wild Bill being back
Ben Hutton couldn’t help himself when asked about William Karlsson being back in the Vegas Golden Knights lineup.
“He’s a cornerstone to our team. It’s Wild Bill and he’s fun,” Hutton said Saturday, per NHL.com’s Derek Van Diest. “He’s fun to make jokes with and lighten the mood, but also on the ice he’s a heck of a player. He can play in any role in any situation.”
Karlsson hadn’t played since Nov. 8 thanks to a lower-body injury that wiped out most of his regular season and all of Round 1. The Knights got him back for Game 1 of this Western Conference Second Round series against the Ducks.
Three games into his return, the 33-year-old is already paying it forward. With 2:04 left in the second period of Friday’s 6-2 rout in Anaheim, Karlsson won a battle below the goal line and slid a behind-the-net feed to Mitch Marner, who curled out and beat Ville Husso to complete the first playoff hat trick of his career.
Jack Eichel hasn’t lost sight of what Karlsson means to the room.
“It’s huge. He’s such a key player for our group and does so many of the little things,” Eichel said Saturday. “I know how hard he’s worked all year to get back to this position and we’re really happy to have him back.”
Marner, in his first season with Vegas after coming over from Toronto in a sign-and-trade last summer, said the chemistry on the new line with Karlsson and Brett Howden was immediate.
Hear the postgame video from Karlsson, Marner and the rest of the room here:
Karlsson returned the praise from his linemate.
“He’s very vocal out there,” Karlsson said of Marner. “He’s a great player and super easy to play with. He sees passes kind of that aren’t there, but for him, they are. And he makes it work. I see now why he has been so successful in his career.”
Wild Bill sits second on the franchise’s all-time points list with 403 and is tied for third in Knights playoff scoring with 72 points in 109 games. Game 4 goes Sunday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
