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Erik Karlsson instantly walks out on scrum when asked about Ottawa

Nick Ashbourne
·Writer

For most people, the idea of an off-limits topic isn’t difficult to understand. Whether it’s no politics talk at Thanksgiving, no sex talk with your nuclear family, or just not mentioning the war, it’s not hard to comprehend that some avenues of conversation are better left unexplored.

One Toronto reporter failed to wrap his mind around that concept on Wednesday, however, when he asked San Jose Sharks defenceman Erik Karlsson about his impending return to Ottawa — a line of questioning Karlsson has made abundantly clear he has no interest in addressing right now.

The result was predictable, and pretty damn funny as well.

The clip can be a little hard to hear at times, so here’s the transcript, emphasis is my own:

Karlsson: How’s it going guys?

Reporter: Good, how are you?

Karlsson: Good, thank you.

Reporter: Thanks for doing this.

Karlsson: Yup.

Reporter: Well Erik, the time is nigh for your big game in Ottawa.

Karlsson: Yup, that’s it.

A couple things to unpack here. The first is the use of the phrase “the time is nigh,” which is beyond bewildering. A good rule of thumb is that if you think you’re impressing anyone by using the word “nigh” 100 times out of 100 you’re sorely mistaken. It’s also worth noting that there’s actually no question here, just a statement put as obnoxiously as possible.

Driving Karlsson away also impeded the ability of the other reporters, who presumably sought to ask him about other topics, to do their job. Availability to a superstar like Karlsson is a finite resource and they had it spoiled by one of their own.

It’s possible to watch this clip and think that Karlsson is being impolite or immature or shirking his responsibilities, but the reality is that he doesn’t have to talk about a topic if he doesn’t want to. More importantly, two days ago in Buffalo he made it clear on where he stood with Ottawa. Here are the opening two paragraphs from a Canadian Press story on Karlsson:

Erik Karlsson tells a small group of reporters waiting near his locker that the only topic they really want to discuss — his impending return to Ottawa as a member of the San Jose Sharks later this week — is off limits.

“When I go up there, I’ll talk about it,” the former Senators defenceman says politely. “I won’t talk about it now.”

That may be frustrating for the media, but it’s well within Karlsson’s rights and it seems like he went about it in a professional way. Not everyone may agree with that choice, but they ought to respect it.

Karlsson just showed the world exactly what he thinks about people who don’t.

Erik Karlsson has made it clear he doesn’t want to talk about his return to Ottawa, and he’s a man of his word. (NBC)
Erik Karlsson has made it clear he doesn’t want to talk about his return to Ottawa, and he’s a man of his word. (NBC)

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