Although the NHL has not officially released the finalists for the league’s Norris Trophy, TSN’s Brent Wallace has sources that have told him that Erik Karlsson is indeed one of the three finalists.
Erik Karlsson, Shea Weber and Zdeno Chara are the Norris Trophy Finalists. #NHLAwards #Sens
— Brent Wallace (@tsn_wally) April 26, 2012
Having led NHL defencemen in points (78) and sharing the lead amongst defencemen in goals (19), Karlsson’s inclusion as one of the Norris finalists isn’t that shocking. Nevertheless, there has been some sentiment from some of the traditional media types that Karlsson shouldn’t receive serious consideration for the award because his defensive game isn’t as strong as his peers. Of course it has not helped that some agenda-ridden influential hockey personalities have even gone so far as to label him as an ‘offenseman’, but I’ve gone to lengths trying to rid some of the stigmas that have been attached to Karlsson’s game – you can read about them here and here.
So here’s the plan, let’s call it Operation Karlsson Votes. Whenever a traditional media member reveals his NHL ballot, fire us an email so that we can track and tabulate the votes to determine who voted for Karlsson and who didn’t.
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