CAPS’ CARLSON ‘TOUGH TO IGNORE’ AFTER HOT START
Defenceman on track for 100-point season and Norris Trophy talk has already begun
Let the campaigning begin.
Voting for the NHL’s year-end awards doesn’t officially begin until immediately after the final game of the regular season. But that hasn’t stopped Alex Ovechkin from treating this four-game cross-Canada road swing as a means to get the word out to the hockey mad masses.
“Johnny4Norris,” Ovechkin told reporters in Calgary last week after Washington Capitals defenceman John Carlson scored twice in a 5-3 win. “That’s the hashtag right now.”
Two days later, Ovechkin interrupted a question from a reporter in Edmonton to correct him on the proper pronunciation of his teammate’s surname.
“Sorry,” said Ovechkin. “John Norris.”
With five goals and 21 points in 13 games, you might think that Carlson’s Norris-worthy numbers would speak for themselves. After all, he’s only the fourth defencemen in NHL history to record this many points in the month of October.
And yet, the award doesn’t just recognize goals and assists. If it did, Carlson would already have one.
In fact, three of the past four scoring leaders on defence did not go on to win the Norris Trophy.
Drew Doughty won in 2015-16 with just 51 points. Two years ago, Carlson wasn’t even a finalist when he finished with a league best 68 points among defencemen.
“For some reason, he got no love,” said Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
“But this year, he’s obviously tough to ignore. He’s hot right now.”
Indeed, it will be difficult to keep Carlson off the ballot again if he were to remain on this 132-point pace — or, at the very least, finishes with 100 points.
There are only five defenceman (Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin, Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis and Brian Leetch) who are members of the triple-digit club. The last time a new member was welcomed in was nearly 30 years ago.
But it’s coming, whether it’s from Carlson, Brent Burns or a fresh-faced teen who just entered the league.
“It’s obviously possible,” Carlson said of ending up with 100 points.
“Guys have been pretty close. It’s not out of the question”
Four years ago, Erik Karlsson tied for fourth in overall scoring with 82 points in 82 games.
Last year, Burns finished with 83 points. It was the most by a defenceman since Ray Bourque had 84 points in 1989-90.
This season is barely a month old, but the top six blueliners in scoring are all producing at a point per game level or better — and their ages would suggest that this is only the beginning.
While Burns is 34 and Carlson and Karlsson will be 30 before the season is done, Toronto’s Morgan Rielly is just 25 years old. He had 20 goals and 72 points last season and is tied for second among defencemen in scoring with 13 points in 13 games this year.
Compared to the next wave of offensive defencemen, Rielly might as well be a veteran.
Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin, who is only 19 years old, has 10 points in 12 games. Colorado rookie Cale Makar also has 10 points in 11 games. And Quinn Hughes, a 20-year-old rookie in Vancouver, has as many points (seven in 10 games) as Doughty, Seth Jones and Kevin Shattenkirk do. More are coming. “Younger guys are more skilled offensively,” said Maple Leafs defenceman Jake Muzzin, who has nine points in 13 games. “You’re less and less of the stayat-home D-man and you’re seeing more of the two-way, skilled, skating D-man. And then with the green light from coaches to jump in and mix it in offensively, this is a result of that.”
Another reason? Carlson is on a team that features Ovechkin, on pace for 57 goals, T.J. Oshie is on pace for 44 goals and Evgeny Kuznetsov is on pace for 39. That’s a lot of goal scorers. It might sound simple, but all Carlson has to do is get them the puck, sit back and watch as the assists pile up.
It’s partly why Rielly, who is on the power play with Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Mitch Marner, has 10 assists already, and why Edmonton’s
If you play with Ovie, Backstrom, Oshie, Kuznetsov, sometimes you’re going to collect and collect and collect.
Oscar Klefbom, who shares the ice with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, has nine points in 12 games after finishing with just 28 points last season.
“You play with really good players, sometimes you get lucky with them,” said Muzzin. “If you play with Ovie, Backstrom, Oshie, Kuznetsov, sometimes you’re going to collect and collect and collect.”
Carlson has collected 16 assists in 13 games. It’s an absurd number. But it’s not simply from being at the right place at the right time.
While only three of Rielly’s 10 assists are primary assists — meaning that he was the last person to touch the puck before the goal-scorer — Carlson has nine primary assists and seven secondary assists.
In other words, he’s making plays and setting up goals. Still, he credits the fact that he is passing the puck to a perennial Rocket Richard Trophy winner for his own success.
“If I make a decent play, someone else is making an even better play to score,” said Carlson.
“It’s been good this early going, but you don’t know what’s going to happen. There are always going to be ups and downs to anybody’s season. I’m just more focused on doing the things that make me a good hockey player.”
According to teammates, he’s more than that. He’s a Norris Trophy candidate — albeit for the month of October.
“He’s playing great,” said Ovechkin. “He’s feeling it and it’s helping us go.”