The Fat Lady is Singing Brent Burns’ Name in the Norris Race

Although there are still about 20 games left to play with, the Norris Trophy race is all over. Brent Burns is obviously the best defenseman this season and it’s not near. He is even getting some recognition in the Hart Trophy conversation and if the Sharks celebrity was to win it, he’d become the first blue-liner to assert the NHL’s MVP trophy since Chris Pronger did it 17 decades ago.
BetOnline has pegged him as the huge -1500 favored, meaning it’s highly unlikely anyone rips him off the pedestal on which he resides along with the fat lady, also known as Gary Bettman, can start warming up her vocal cords.
So what’s Burns doing to earn such high praise and significant award consideration? Well, for starters, he’s 27 goals to go together with his 39 assists, is a +23 and is averaging almost 25 minutes of ice time a game. His offensive numbers rival those of the best forward in the league and he does it without abandoning his post at the defensive end. He has more power-play points than NHL points leader Connor McDavid and is also tied for first with Drew Doughty along with Ryan Suter with 4.57 defensive point shares apiece.
Doughty won the award in 2015-16 based mostly on his remarkable defensive stage stocks number so if Burns continues to take care of his responsibilities before Martin Jones, there’s no reason to deny him the Norris honors.
If Burns doesn’t win the Norris this year, there is something fundamentally wrong with the way we decide who wins awards. He’s beard and shoulders above anyone else on the list and Erik Karlsson, who’s second in the odds at +900, finished runner-up to Doughty in Norris voting last year and he had a better season than he’s having this year.
Another factor that shouldn’t be ignored is how amazing a guy Burns is. The dude is a shining beacon of amusement in a league that tends to lack personality. Why the NHL Isn’t promoting the hell out of this guy is outside me.Archived Articles
One of the most controversial moves throughout the NHL offseason was that the trade that sent P.K. Subban into Nashville and Shea Weber north of the border to Montreal. Critics hounded Marc Bergevin and the Canadiens’ front office for the transfer but with the Habs start their year 9-0-1 and Weber being a league-best +14, the criticism is starting to silence.
The odds have been upgraded for Norris Trophy futures and Weber has climbed the board and now sits right behind Erik Karlsson in +325. The Habs blue-line bomber not just leads all players in plus/minus, in addition, he sits third in points for defensemen with 10 and has already pounded in four goals — three of them to the power play.
P.K., on the other hand, is -7 through 10 games and is shooting at an awful 8.3 percent. His group sits dead in the Central Division with just 3 wins and has been struggling to place the puck in the net. I still think the Predators are a good team and Subban is obviously — a good player. BetOnline is supplying a +1400 line for P.K. to win the Norris but I think you can avoid this one — Subban is too much risk/reward player to ever post the stellar defensive amounts required of a Norris winner.
Weber’s plus/minus and other defensive amounts will be encouraged astronomically by playing facing Carey Price this year and if the Canadiens keep winning, the significant blue-liner is a complete shoo-in to carry this award even when he fails to continue to keep pace with Brent Burns and Karlsson from the points race.
Drew Doughty won the Norris past year despite posting 31 fewer points than Karlsson, who obtained the second-most votes. He did, but rate the league in defensive stage stocks — a stat Weber currently leads the NHL in.