Riiiiiight.

I love Lankinen. I became a fan of his ever since I learned his name from watching him win gold with Kaapo Kakko. But this is cherry picking on your end. Take that stretch of games and juxtapose it to his other ones in March.

If he sustains his pace from these four games like he did in January, he'll be back up in no time.

Top 10, no, top 10.

How come?

They've been great but I would have Fox, Makar, McAvoy, Pulock, Pelech before. You can definitely make a case but I believe these guys deserve it more.

Darnell Nurse.

As things currently stand, I think Hedman is actually kinda separated from the rest of the pack, but Fox/Makar/McAvoy, as well as guys like Pelech, Theodore, Nurse and Hamilton (not sure if I agree with Pulock) are all very close to Petry in my eyes

Top 10

I hope you're not shocked when Doughty ends up in 4th or 5th on the Norris voting lists. Pulock and Pelech are definitely going to get overlooked.

Top-2

LOL, I already know how dumb the voters are don't worry.

I know, there's a considerable gap between what the rankings should be and what they will be.

I can't lie. I'm still salty about last year.

Unless you're a voter, most people try to take defense in consideration... you know, the thing Nurse doesn't do really well

You said he’s fallen off recently and I picked his 4 most recent games, not really cherry-picking. Not sure how far you want me to go back when you say “recently”

Have you been paying attention? He's 2nd in the league at +/-, plays more than any player here and also plays tough minutes. Here's Nurse vs the other contenders listed here:

TOI vs Elite forwards
1. Nurse: 259.6 (40.7%) - 1st on team
2. Fox: 223.6 (49.3%) - 2nd on team
3. Petry: 222.9 (45.9%) - 2nd
4. McAvoy: 202.1 (41.2%) - 1st
5. Hedman: 94.6 (18.4%) - 3rd
6. Makar: 43.4 (16.4%) - 4th

The competition in the Central and West is a joke. Hedman and Makar should be docked heavily for that.

League rank in 5v5 TOI/GP (team rank)
2. Nurse: 20:47 (1st on team)
29. McAvoy: 18:07 (1st)
31. Hedman: 18:05 (1st)
51. Makar: 17:28 (3rd)
81. Fox: 16:52 (3rd)
82. Petry: 16:49 (2nd)

Three of these guys aren't in the top-50 in the league and also aren't even the #1D on their own team in their respective coach's mind. Petry, Makar and Fox should lose some points for this.

League rank in 5v5 boxcars (team rank)
1. Nurse: 10-9-19 (1st)
17. Petry: 5-6-11 (1st)
22. McAvoy: 3-8-11 (1st)
23. Makar: 2-9-11 (3rd)
38. Fox: 2-8-10 (1st)
44. Hedman: 4-5-9 (3rd)

Makar has missed time due to injury so there's some mitigation in his 3rd place rank on the team, but missing games to injury also hurts his Norris case IMO. Hedman doesn't look good here TBH, as he's on the best team in the weakest division and still last here in points.

5v5 On-ice Goal Differential (GF% rel)
1. Nurse: +14 (+14.30)
2. Makar: +12 (+8.48)
3. Petry: +11 (+2.80)
4. Hedman: +8 (-2.12)
5. McAvoy: +6 (+14.14)
6. Fox: +6 (+11.90)

Nurse is the front runner here in both categories. Tampa does better with Hedman on the bench than on the ice, which is incredible considering he's +8. Just goes to show how weak the comp is in the Central and how strong the Lightning are.

League rank in overall boxcars (PP boxcars)
1. Hedman: 6-27-33 +13 (1-18-19)
3. Fox: 4-26-30 +11 (2-15-17)
6. Nurse: 12-15-27 +20 (0-4-4)
7. Petry: 11-16-27 +15 (4-8-12)
19. Makar: 3-19-22 +12 (1-9-10)
22. McAvoy: 4-17-21 +9 (0-5-5)

Most of these guys make their living with the man-advantage, it's pretty incredible that Nurse is above most of these picks in overall points without the advantage of a lot power-play time. And he's leading the league in goals, too.

I meant the past month — since the start of March. Sorry for my bad wording

Time on ice and quality of competition depends on the coach and the team's depth. Playing big minutes isn't doesn't mean he's automatically elite. +/- is one of the worst (if not the worst) stat in hockey.

"The competition in the Central and West is a joke" "as he's on the best team in the weakest division" That's the North with their one great team

It's an indication of what a coach thinks of a player's abilities. The best players always face the best competition. I don't blame coaches for shielding guys like Makar, Hughes and Dahlin from the oppositions best players, that's a good move. But you can't turn around and say they're the best in the league when they need to be sheltered. The Norris should be awarded to the most complete defenseman, not an offensive specialist that gets lots of points. Otherwise Tyson Barrie would be on this list.


I love how you skipped over all that stats I took the time to display and fix on a passing reference to +/-.


The North is the toughest division for defensemen. All the best forwards are in the North: 4 of the top-6 goal scorers and 5 of the top-7 for points. Who does Makar/Hedman face? Very few of the top teams in their divisions are offensive juggernauts - and Makar and Hedman don't face those team's best players anyhow!

Look at the top-10 teams by GF/GP
COL: 3.63
TBL: 3.51
WAS: 3.40
TOR: 3.31
EDM: 3.30
FLA: 3.28
WPG: 3.24
VEG: 3.24
MTL: 3.22
CAR: 3.21

Nurse faces 3 of those teams (50% of his opponents), Hedman faces 2 (28.5%) but others face the opposition's best players; and Makar faces just 1 (14%) but others take on the opposition's best forwards. See how this works? And yet Darnell Nurse has a better 5v5 goal differential than any player listed here.

"...try to take defense in consideration... you know, the thing Nurse doesn't do really well" DUR!

Half NHL coaches are bad. The other half are pretty good but still makes some obvious mistakes.

"The Norris should be awarded to the most complete defenseman, not an offensive specialist that gets lots of points" This is why Darnell Nurse shouldn't be in the top5 of Norris voting. He's a great offensive defenseman, not a complete defenseman.

You should watch hockey. Clearly you know nothing about it.

I'm not biased and I don't use useless stats.

You are biased and you haven't used any stats.

I'm not an Oilers fan

Best news I've heard all day!