Adam Fox will need big surge to win second Norris Trophy
Adam Fox of the Rangers and Bryan Rust of the Penguins battle for position during the second period at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There was a time earlier in the season when Jericho native Adam Fox was considered a favorite to win his second Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman.
The debate at that time was whether Fox’s solid two-way play for a legitimate playoff team like the Rangers was more valuable than the eye-popping scoring numbers that Erik Karlsson was putting up for the rebuilding Sharks.
But now talk of Fox winning the Norris this season is pretty much gone. The 2021 Norris winner hasn’t been terribly productive since the All-Star break with zero goals, 13 assists and a plus/minus rating of minus-2 in 19 games (Feb. 6-March 16).
Entering Saturday, Fox was tied for fifth in scoring among NHL defensemen with 61 points (10 goals, 51 assists). Karlsson was first with 20 goals and 85 points.
If Karlsson can record 15 points in the Sharks’ last 13 games, he will become the first defenseman with 100 points since the Rangers’ Brian Leetch in the 1991-92 season.
Not that it’s all about points, but Karlsson had 11 goals and 74 points in 78 games last season, and it still wasn’t enough to win the Norris.
Fox hasn’t been helped by the upper-body injury to his longtime partner and friend, Ryan Lindgren, who has missed the last nine games. Fox and Lindgren have played together almost their entire NHL careers and go back to the U.S. National Development Program, where they were defensive partners as teenagers.
Fox recently has been paired with newcomer Niko Mikkola, which clearly is not as natural for him.
“You’re putting a new partner with him that’s not used to playing with him,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said. “They’re still playing fine and playing lots of minutes, so I’m not disappointed at all. But I mean, I can’t say they’ve been up here [raising his hand to a high level], but they’ve played fine.
“You know, he makes some mistakes. Adam Fox is one of the best defensemen in the league, and he’s got more patience than anybody, and sometimes it doesn’t go perfectly every time . . . But Adam Fox is Adam Fox, and we’re not going to take his game away from him.’’
Barring a late-season surge, Fox likely won’t win the Norris this season. He’ll almost certainly be in the conversation as a recent former winner, but Karlsson, New Jersey’s Dougie Hamilton, Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin and last year’s winner, Colorado’s Cale Makar, probably are ahead of him.
Makar’s season has been limited by injury, but he’s back now. He had 16 goals and 58 points in 54 games entering Saturday.
Long Beach native Charlie McAvoy could get some support, too, as the top defenseman on the league-best Boston Bruins. McAvoy missed a chunk of time at the start of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery over the summer, but entering Saturday, he had tallied five goals and 48 points in 54 games and had a plus/minus of plus-27.
His teammate, defenseman Hampus Lindholm, led the league as of Saturday with a plus-41.
Busy is good for Mika
Beginning with Saturday night’s matchup against Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are scheduled to play 14 games in the final 27 days of the regular season, which sounds pretty tiring. But center Mika Zibanejad didn’t look at it that way.
“Wouldn’t you rather play games?’’ Zibanejad asked when the daunting schedule was brought up to him. “It’s the same for every team. That’s the way the schedule is. I mean, yeah, you want breaks, and you want time to recover, but I feel like this is a topic every year, about the hectic schedule here and there. And it comes and goes, so I don’t think there’s anything new.
“Obviously, that’s what we’re working for during the summers, and preparing ourselves, and making sure that we are ready to go. And I think just playing games is obviously more fun as well.
“If things don’t go your way [in a game], you get a chance, very quickly, to do something about it. And I’d rather have that than sit on a game for a week and think about it.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.