Make sure to follow Travis on Twitter and
Facebook!
--
In light of the
A(nyone) B(ut) K(arlsson) approach to this year's 2012 Norris Trophy race, I've decided to identify - and subsequently advocate - Ladislav Smid of the Edmonton Oilers as my finalist for the league's most coveted trophy amongst defensemen.
Foolishly, for the majority of the 2011-2012 season, I've spent my time explaining why Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators has been the runaway favorite. Everyone knows the specifics - they've been exhaused ad nauseum. Karlsson's already tallied seventy-six points (19G/57A), which is ahead of the likes of all-world sniper Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils.
Then again, no one really doubts his offensive abilities. It's his defensive game that's really come into question.
Allegedly.
While many in Ottawa will be quick to point out that he leads the NHL amongst defensemen in takeaways with sixty - maintaining double-digit leads over the likes of Shea Weber, Alex Pietrangelo, Zdeno Chara, et al. - you should never let facts get in the way of a good argument. Ever.
See, Erik Karlsson doesn't log a lot of penalty kill time. While logic would dictate that the rationale for keeping a revolutionary offensive talent like Erik Karlsson's penalty-kill time limited would have a lot to do with curtailing his already-excessive 25:15(10th in NHL, D), I've been told the alternative is true. Rather, the causation/correlation fallacy-turned-non-fallacy has turned him into a defensive liability - per
Sportsnet,
Puck Daddy, and so on.
And, as Craig Custance of ESPN
brilliantly pointed out through the words of Ken Hitchcock, he's really just an 'offenseman' at this stage of his career - especially in comparison to a player like Alex Pietrangelo.
"If you're looking for a legitimate defenseman, then to me, that's what this guy is. He's the word 'defenseman.' He's not an 'offenseman."
In fairness to CC and Hitch, Karlsson's lower-than-average hit and blocked shot totals - 55 and 61, respectively - could be damning without context. After all, this Ottawa team tends to possess the puck very little when Erik Karlsson's on the ice. And, it's not as if the above-mentioned takeaway statistic should play a role as a mitigating factor for these two numbers. Some would argue that Erik Karlsson ' all 6'0", 180 lbs. of him - has modified his game to excel at the speed and positional aspects in the defensive third, but honestly, this seems like a grasp at straws more than anthing else. One NHL scout decided to play the role of devil's advocate here, but I'm not sure I'm sold(h/t Y!):
“He gets to loose pucks, one pass, boom – the puck’s going the other way,” said the scout, who declined to be identified because he was talking about a player from another team. “To me, that’s the best defense that you can have. You get the puck and then the other team doesn’t have it. Karlsson is excellent – absolutely excellent – at that.”
In addition to the above argument, one has to ask: When has this guy ever delivered that bone-jarring kill shot over the middle? That has to play a major role in any Norris Trophy voting.
Hockey media personality Darren Pang was
quick to point out on Twitter that a dark-horse nominee - Alex Pietrangelo - should deserve some serious attention, especially with respect to the Norris Trophy race. You know what? I couldn't agree more. The guy is an unbelievable two-way talent and has been a huge part of the St. Louis Blues run to the top of the NHL standings.
Pang also pointed out that Alex Pietrangelo plays against top-competition, contrary to some potential candidates -- specifically referencing Erik Karlsson. A quick look at Corsi Relative Quality of Competition would note the alternative to be true; Erik Karlsson's 0.789 is a bit stronger than Alex Pietrangelo's 0.758 at even strength. Again, though, there's no reason to cloud a fun debate with legitimate points that are substantiated in any way.
With the newly-defined Norris Trophy requirements per MSM taken into consideration, I'm beginning to get behind the etching of Ladislav Smid's name into the hardware. Why? Smid's an absolute machine in the defensive third, with 182 hits and 182 blocked shots alike for a struggling Edmonton Oilers team.
Further, Smid's logging an impressive 3:21 PK TOI, and since correlation always implies causation, I'm going to assume - rather than actually watch the games - that he's one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League.
His 5G/10A are respectable offensively - at least enough to warrant the 'two-way' label that's slapped around on pretty much any blue-liner that meets some egregiously low offensive threshold. So long as you're not scoring
too many points, you're considered two-way. Smid fits the bill. Hey, he's just two points behind Brooks Orpik, and he played on the USA Olympics team. That's enough for me.
Alright, enough. Does all of this sound ridiculous to you? It absolutely, positively should. The ABK campaign has reached a new-low, something that I couldn't even fathom a month ago.
Instead of watching the hockey on-ice and noting what kind of positive overall impact Erik Karlsson has on his team, national media types are tending to the same, tired hyperbolic arguments that generally lack any kind of substance or qualification.
It's almost embarrasing - even from an entirely objective point of view - that so many members of the hockey media would travel to such lengths to debunk what's so apparent to everyone else; that is, Erik Karlsson is far and away the most impactful defenseman in the National Hockey League.
But, in the ratings-world we live in today, everything is about Nielsen Ratings and page clicks. It's the Skip Bayless, Tim Tebow-ization of the hockey world. Every statistical measurement - PK TOI withstanding - suggests Erik Karlsson should be the runaway favorite in the Norris Trophy race; so much so, he's lapping the competition.
And yet, because of how unique of a player he is, the pushback was expected. He doesn't play in a big market, nor is he the prototypical big-body in the defensive third. But, the amount of dissenting opinion solely for the sake of dissenting opinion preaches to the stubbornness of hockey media types to own the kind of game-changing ability #65 possesses.
As sad as it is, the more Erik Karlsson scores, the more pushback there will be. There seems to be some weird, desirable range for point-scoring defensemen - anything more, you're a liability. Anything less, you're too much of a stay-at-home type.
Lubomir Visnovsky was victimized by this a year ago. Ditto Mike Green. What's incredible is that Erik Karlsson isn't remotely similar to either of these two names(i.e., defensively, he's far superior), yet he's linked solely because of offensive output.
The James Norris Trophy, by definition, is awarded to the NHL defenseman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position. No player has added more to his team as a defenseman than Erik Karlsson has to the Ottawa Senators. On offense, on defense, as a whole.
Perhaps my main man Jeff Quirin - now covering the St. Louis Blues for HockeyBuzz - summed it up best in today's blog post:
At this point it’s a three horse race between Pietrangelo, Weber and Chara. Karlsson doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same company. Sorry Senators fans, but the fact that Karlsson doesn’t play on the penalty kill should exclude him.
He's right. Karlsson doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same company. He's been far, far superior.
--
Note: The above-reference to Ladislav Smid is not a sarcastic jab at his overall production. He's actually been quite a rock for the Emdonton Oilers. Rather, it's an attempt to paint the opposite argument(i.e., a defenseman needs to excel at defense primarily) in a poor light. Carry on ballin', Smid.
Thanks for reading!
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»