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Truth be told, we could all use a little help. You. Me. Everyone. I have an NHL awards ballot to be filled out next week; you have an NHL playoff pool draft coming up. Fourteen NHL franchises have the McEichel Draft Lottery in less than two weeks.
We’ve all got work to do, or in the case of the lottery teams, much praying.
So as a public service to you (though, shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but it’s mostly a research tool for me), let me present the (maybe, maybe not) annual Deadly Serious But Not Without a Touch of Irreverence/Whimsy End of Season NHL Coaches’ Poll.
What follows are five probing end-of-season questions asked of 20 NHL head coaches – 10 in the Eastern Conference and 10 in the Western Conference. And, in all seriousness, thank you to the 20 gentlemen - and that they are - for taking a few moments out of their gut-wrenching, soul-sucking, ulcer-inducing weekends of NHL activity to participate in the DSBNWATOI/WEOS NHL Coaches’ Poll. There’s a special place for all of you in Hockey Heaven, where no one ever gets fired, every day is a Stanley Cup parade and no one ever asks you do a coaches’ poll.
So here we go:
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3. Who are your top three for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenceman?
This question was nothing more than a desperate cry for help. From me.
I don’t recall the Norris race being more muddled than it is this year. If Calgary’s Mark Giordano hadn’t been injured, he looked like he was ready to lope to the finish line as an easy Norris winner, but when his season ended after 61 games, it left it wide open.
You can make a strong Norris case for any of a half dozen defencemen though you could just as easily poke holes in their nomination. It’s been that kind of year, typified perhaps by the coaches’ No. 1 choice – Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson.
The Senators’ captain struggled mightily through much of the NHL’s first quarter but, like his team, Karlsson has surged to be a dominant if still inconsistent shooting star who leads all blueliners in scoring.
Nevertheless, Karlsson received eight first-place votes, twice as many as Los Angeles King Doughty (4) and four times as many as the only other two blueliners – teammates Shea Weber and Roman Josi, two apiece – to get multiple first-place votes.
The Weber-Josi dynamic is fascinating. Weber’s name has been regularly mentioned as a Norris candidate but it’s clear the coaches have been wowed by his Swiss teammate. Weber had a slight edge in balloting over Josi – he showed up on seven ballots to Josi’s six – but it was tight.
Other defencemen who got one first-place vote included Montreal’s P.K. Subban, injured Flame Giordano, Minnesota’s Ryan Suter, and Chicago’s Duncan Keith. Other defencemen who got at least one vote included Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang, Montreal’s Andrei Markov, Ranger Ryan McDonagh and San Jose’s Brent Burns.
Once you tally up all the balloting, though, the final Norris standings amongst contending blueliners are as follows: Karlsson, Doughty, Subban, Weber, Josi, and Giordano.
I’m not sure, after this exercise, I’m any further ahead than I was.
“You’re right,” one coach commiserated, “the Norris is impossible this year.”
Read more: http://www.tsn.ca/end-of-season-hono...david-1.249213
We’ve all got work to do, or in the case of the lottery teams, much praying.
So as a public service to you (though, shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but it’s mostly a research tool for me), let me present the (maybe, maybe not) annual Deadly Serious But Not Without a Touch of Irreverence/Whimsy End of Season NHL Coaches’ Poll.
What follows are five probing end-of-season questions asked of 20 NHL head coaches – 10 in the Eastern Conference and 10 in the Western Conference. And, in all seriousness, thank you to the 20 gentlemen - and that they are - for taking a few moments out of their gut-wrenching, soul-sucking, ulcer-inducing weekends of NHL activity to participate in the DSBNWATOI/WEOS NHL Coaches’ Poll. There’s a special place for all of you in Hockey Heaven, where no one ever gets fired, every day is a Stanley Cup parade and no one ever asks you do a coaches’ poll.
So here we go:
...
3. Who are your top three for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenceman?
This question was nothing more than a desperate cry for help. From me.
I don’t recall the Norris race being more muddled than it is this year. If Calgary’s Mark Giordano hadn’t been injured, he looked like he was ready to lope to the finish line as an easy Norris winner, but when his season ended after 61 games, it left it wide open.
You can make a strong Norris case for any of a half dozen defencemen though you could just as easily poke holes in their nomination. It’s been that kind of year, typified perhaps by the coaches’ No. 1 choice – Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson.
The Senators’ captain struggled mightily through much of the NHL’s first quarter but, like his team, Karlsson has surged to be a dominant if still inconsistent shooting star who leads all blueliners in scoring.
Nevertheless, Karlsson received eight first-place votes, twice as many as Los Angeles King Doughty (4) and four times as many as the only other two blueliners – teammates Shea Weber and Roman Josi, two apiece – to get multiple first-place votes.
The Weber-Josi dynamic is fascinating. Weber’s name has been regularly mentioned as a Norris candidate but it’s clear the coaches have been wowed by his Swiss teammate. Weber had a slight edge in balloting over Josi – he showed up on seven ballots to Josi’s six – but it was tight.
Other defencemen who got one first-place vote included Montreal’s P.K. Subban, injured Flame Giordano, Minnesota’s Ryan Suter, and Chicago’s Duncan Keith. Other defencemen who got at least one vote included Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang, Montreal’s Andrei Markov, Ranger Ryan McDonagh and San Jose’s Brent Burns.
Once you tally up all the balloting, though, the final Norris standings amongst contending blueliners are as follows: Karlsson, Doughty, Subban, Weber, Josi, and Giordano.
I’m not sure, after this exercise, I’m any further ahead than I was.
“You’re right,” one coach commiserated, “the Norris is impossible this year.”
Read more: http://www.tsn.ca/end-of-season-hono...david-1.249213
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