Hinting Their Norris Winner?

[Guest Four]

"When he's on," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, "he's pretty good to watch."

Isles goalie Joey MacDonald couldn't help but agree.

"That's why he's so good. That's why he's probably going to win the Norris Trophy this year," MacDonald said. "It's not the big one-timer shot. It's a nice floater right through, and it's tough for a goaltender."

Should Mike Green win the Norris Trophy?

Yes:

66.73 %

No:

33.27 %

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=416310

[lets go pavel 2]

He's certainly a leading candidate, but I'm not sure what you mean by "hinting their winner". The Hockey Writers vote for that, not the fans n NHL.com, and I don't think the voting takes place until the season ends.

[Guest mindfly]

To me he's a lock now, maybe chara... lidström is totally out he has shown no signs of improvement over the last weeks.... utterly disappointed

[Hank 0]

To me he's a lock now, maybe chara... lidström is totally out he has shown no signs of improvement over the last weeks.... utterly disappointed

I agree. His team is in 2nd place in the East and he could score 35+ goals. I can't remember the last time a defenseman scored as many goals per game

.

And he's an underrated defender too.

5-on-5 he's probably the most effective defender on both sides of the puck.

The sad part is, Lidstrom's probably not going to be on the ballet:

Green, Chara, Weber

[hockey&beer 16]

Green has no right to have his name even mentioned. Sure he can score, but the handful of Caps games I have seen, he is lacking a bit on the defensive side.

The Norris is not a scoring race.

[Blueliner 69]

Green has no right to have his name even mentioned. Sure he can score, but the handful of Caps games I have seen, he is lacking a bit on the defensive side.

The Norris is not a scoring race.

Lidstrom is by far the best defender. He has gone one-on-one with Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin and many others and have shut them down.

[Guest Shoreline]

Reading this, Drake, Doc, and all the other people trying to act like complete douchebags when I suggest it's Green's Norris to lose?

Time to see the forest for the trees and stop acting like the Norris winner needs to be some godly defenseman just because our Lidstrom won it.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Shoreline

[Hank 0]

Green has no right to have his name even mentioned. Sure he can score, but the handful of Caps games I have seen, he is lacking a bit on the defensive side.

The Norris is not a scoring race.

Yes it is. Most of the time.

It's why guys like Gonchar have been mentioned as candidates in the past. And I don't believe anyone has ever won the Norris while not being in the top 5-10 scorers for dmen.

Hell, Paul Coffey won it 3 times and he was more of a 4th forward than anything else.

If he was such a great defender, Bowman would not have had him traded after winning the Norris and being a leading scorer on the Wings in two years prior to the deal.

In reality, a guy like Konstantinov should have won it multiple times if it was only about best defender.

That's the way it is, and it's the reason why Green is going to win this award by a landslide.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Hank

[Guest Four]

Green has no right to have his name even mentioned. Sure he can score, but the handful of Caps games I have seen, he is lacking a bit on the defensive side.

The Norris is not a scoring race.

Yes, but he's Canadian and his scoring provides more entertainment than Lidstrom's defense, which stops goals.

Bettman does not like that.

[Hank 0]

Yes, but he's Canadian and his scoring provides more entertainment than Lidstrom's defense, which stops goals.

Bettman does not like that.

LOL. So what happened in the last 7 seasons when Lidstrom won 6 Norris Trophy's?

And what about when Lidstrom and Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy's in the last 2 Wings Cup wins?

And you do realize that Bettman has ZERO say in who wins awards right?

The press votes the winners in.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Hank

[Guest Four]

LOL. So what happened in the last 7 seasons when Lidstrom won 6 Norris Trophy's?

And what about when Lidstrom and Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy's in the last 2 Wings Cup wins?

And you do realize that Bettman has ZERO say in who wins awards right?

The press votes the winners in.

He could have an much say as he wanted to have in reality, it just isn't his place.

And there hasn't been any 35 goal scorers when Lidstrom played below-lidstrom-average, have there?

Eh Mr. Questions?

Got anymore questions?

Clearly Hank should have got the Conn Smythe?

Are you trying to make it seem like I' m saying the Wings can't win anything?

Are you that thick headed to twist my words that much?

Get over yourself and stop using all questions to disprove, it's annoying, isn't it?

Or maybe I should continue, what do you say?

Do you realize how god damn annoying you are asking questions over and over?

Or can I stop now that you've realized it?

Yes?

No?

Edited April 2, 2009 by Four

[lets go pavel 2]

He could have an much say as he wanted to have in reality, it just isn't his place.

You're not making much sense here. Bettman has no say in it ... he doesn't vote. The Hockey Writers do. Bettman has nothing to do with determining the winners ... he has no say in it.

[shutoutking 0]

Lidstrom is the best defender. Green is the best offensively.

Lidstrom, Chara, and Weber are the most well-rounded. Green at times might as well play wing. Over half his numbers are on the power play, and that because Ovechkin and Semin play on the same unit, and you gotta watch those guys of course so Green is left to play. Weber has 21 goals and 30 assists, it'd be interesting to see how many goals Weber or Lidstrom would have with at least an Ovechkin/Crosby type player on their PP.

So, Green=slightly overrated/inflated stats

[lets go pavel 2]

Lidstrom is the best defender. Green is the best offensively.

Lidstrom, Chara, and Weber are the most well-rounded. Green at times might as well play wing. Over half his numbers are on the power play, and that because Ovechkin and Semin play on the same unit, and you gotta watch those guys of course so Green is left to play. Weber has 21 goals and 30 assists, it'd be interesting to see how many goals Weber or Lidstrom would have with at least an Ovechkin/Crosby type player on their PP.

So, Green=slightly overrated/inflated stats

I agree on Weber, but Lidstrom has played, at various times, with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa, and Franzen, 4 30-goal scorers, on what has been the best PP in the league for most of the year.

[shutoutking 0]

Yeah, just trying to throw your guy in there so my homerism is diluted

Weber could score 30 if someone's PK was having to watch Ovechkin. His shot is better than Green's. Its almost as hard as Chara's but probably more accurate.

Edited April 2, 2009 by shutoutking

[hockey&beer 16]

Scoring is definetly part of the process, but should not be the defining factor. Last year THN tried suggesting new awards so that defensive defenseman and offensive defenseman could be separated, and to some extent they should. But the Norris is for best all-around.

If scoring is the how the Norris ballot is picked, how come no one has mentioned Rafalski? Not only because he isn't the best defenseman on the Wings, but he isn't that spectacular on the defensive side of the game.

[toby91_ca 620]

If scoring is the how the Norris ballot is picked, how come no one has mentioned Rafalski?

Because he is not blowing everyone else out of the water like Green is. Green has 13 more points than Rafalski and has played 12-13 fewer games I think.

It's easy to say Green isn't great defensively, which I agree with, but it will be hard for a voter to ignore his +24 (I hate +/- because I don't think it means much, but the votors do get influenced by it). His +24 is far better than pretty much everyone on the team. Ovechkin is +12 and there are a few others in the +10 to +15 range, but the majority are in single digits or minuses. Semin is +25, but I think that is a little inflated. Many of their players had huge +/- stats earlier in the year (I think Ovechkin was up over +25 at one point) and I think Semin missed a lot of games where those stats started to come back down to earth. For example, I think Semin is -3 over the past 15 games.

[rick zombo 3,739]

So now to the question:

Has Lidstrom won the last Norris trophy of his career?

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

So now to the question:

Has Lidstrom won the last Norris trophy of his career?

That's what I thought after his supbar 2004 season, but I guess it's different now seeing how he's much older.

If I had to guess, I'd say yes, but it's still up for grabs as to the next few seasons.

[wmubronco420 25]

Green isnt as bad on the defensive side as some of you seem to think, he gets most of his goals on the power-play and yet his +/- is still around 25. I think a lot of people just see his huge offensive numbers and assume he's lacking on the defense, which he's not.

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

Sure he can score, but the handful of Caps games I have seen, he is lacking a bit on the defensive side.

The times I've seen him he is literally hovering at the top of the circles or even the dot virtually every time the Caps were cycling in the attacking zone. Not every once in a while, not when the opportunity arises, that is his default position on offense. It's amazing they don't get burned for odd-man rushes more than they do -- or maybe they do, but I don't see that many games of theirs.

A couple months ago I mentioned how if his numbers stay as high as they were in relation to his peers, he'd get the Norris for sure, and at this point they're even better than they were then, so I don't see how they won't give it to him.

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

Green scores a lot of points because he's a trained forward who happens to play defense, and pinches in constantly.

Obviously, he's immensely talented, so I'm not saying that every D-man can score 30+ goals, but there are several who could do it yearly if they played the same style of hockey that Green does.

He'll probably win the Norris, and become the 2nd forward (Paul Coffey being the 1st) to win the Norris.

[Guest Shoreline]

The times I've seen him he is literally hovering at the top of the circles or even the dot virtually every time the Caps were cycling in the attacking zone. Not every once in a while, not when the opportunity arises, that is his default position on offense. It's amazing they don't get burned for odd-man rushes more than they do -- or maybe they do, but I don't see that many games of theirs.

A couple months ago I mentioned how if his numbers stay as high as they were in relation to his peers, he'd get the Norris for sure, and at this point they're even better than they were then, so I don't see how they won't give it to him.

Having Center Ice and being most interested in exciting teams to watch (Pens, Bruins, Flames, Sharks, Caps) along with my Wings, I have seen plenty of Caps games, and they activate him much the same way the Wings and Avs activated their defenses years ago. Defensively he is just fine. The people stereotyping him likely come from an exaggeration of a few human-like mistakes he made that happened to be on famous highlight reels. And given how many mistakes we've seen Lidstrom make this season, or simply get burned, we're not in much a position to complain.. as Lids has had a rather off-year compared to seasons before, along with Osgood and the forward/defensemen's defensive play as a whole. I'd take Lidstrom over Green any day, but the truth is Green has had a Norris-like season, by the way the voters aim at Norris candidates, and by the exposure Green has. Chara doesn't have enough exposure this season, nor the offense, and Lidstrom would lose by default simply because he's on a team that has performed rather poorly defensively. And since there's not too much of a way of judging defensiveness by statistics, one is left with the amount of headlines and exposure one gets. This is why Green is ultimately the front runner candidate, despite some people's own personal views of what entails a well-rounded/overall defenseman.

[Dimaline312000 51]

I'd say Green has a real good shot at it.

[Guest micah]

I'll say it. Green should get the Norris. He is the best D-man in the league this year. He is doing what he is supposed to do better than anyone else is doing what they are supposed to do. Washington expects him to score a ton, but obviously not at th eexpense of giving up a ton of goals in return. He's managing that beautifully. He is far-and-away the best offensive Defenseman, while managing to be "good enough" (some would even argue that he's been better than expected) defensively. Personally, I think the guy is underrated at the defensive side of his game. Obviously he's pretty committed to the offensive side of his game - but most D-men who play the game he does would get burnt a lot more than he does.

Edited April 2, 2009 by micah