Chara & his '09 Norris
BOSTON — If Zdeno Chara felt the like he did last week over the course of the 2010-11 season, there’s no way he could’ve produced a season worthy of the Norris Trophy.
Chara’s mystery illness and the dehydration it caused prior to Game 2 of Boston’s Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with Montreal cost him about 10 pounds of body weight, the captain revealed today after practicing at TD Garden in preparation for tomorrow night’s Game 6 in Montreal.
Luckily for the Bruins, Chara was basically 100 percent throughout the regular season and is getting closer to his fine form in this series. He missed just the last game of the season as a healthy scratch and then wasn’t available for Game 2 against the Canadiens.
In the regular season, he put up 14-30-44 totals and a league-leading plus/minus of plus-33. He logged an average of 25:26 of ice time, almost always against opposing first lines. The writers of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association were impressed enough that Chara was voted a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman.
“To me, the first priority is always hard work. I like to work extremely hard, on and off the ice,” the 2009 Norris winner said today when asked for his definition of a great defenseman. “I’m very competitive, I’m very motivated to play against top lines and the best players every night. I take a lot of pride in that and I just want to help the team as much as I can to win. That was always my first thing. I always want to put the team in front of egos or individual goals. To me that’s the most important thing. Everything else falls into place.
“I know I’m not the extremely skilled defenseman who’s going to put 70 points on the board every year. But I know if I play my game, I can give my team a good chance to win hockey games and that’s all I can do.”
Chara was joined on the list by Nashville’s Shea Weber and Detroit’s Nick Lidstrom when the finalists were announced by the NHL. Two years ago, Chara beat out Lidstrom and Washington’s Mike Green for the honor.
Last season, Boston dropped from first in the Eastern Conference the previous season to sixth when the regular season ended. Although the Bruins were second in goals against, they dropped to last in goals for. Chara dropped from 19 goals to seven and 50 points to 44.
This season the Bruins more resembled their 2008-09 incarnation. Chara points to that as a big reason for the recognition he is now receiving as an individual.
“It’s nice to be in that group again and be nominated. I know that last year was kind of a little bit not probably as strong as the previous year. But as a team, I think we all had kind of off years,” he said. “This year, we were back on track again and everybody performed with a lot of consistency. We had obviously strong goaltending from Timmy [Thomas] and Tuukka [Rask]. We scored more goals than last year. We again were [second in] the league with goals against. When you have these things fall into place in a team way, then everything else will fall into place. But we’ll see when we get closer to the awards. I just right now am focusing on the playoffs and trying to play the best that I can.”
Those playoffs could include a berth in the second round if the Bruins win tomorrow night at the Bell Centre. Having a little rest rather than playing a Game 7 could greatly benefit Chara, who’s still trying to regain his peak condition after his illness.
“I’m close. It’s not obviously there yet,” he said. “But I’m just trying to do my best to put the weight back on. It’s amazing how you lose it so quick, in a couple days, but putting it back on takes so long.”
Chara should win the 2011 Norris. If Lidstrom wins then it should be renamed the Lifetime Achievment Award, his time has come & gone, no defenceman should win this award if his +/- is in the minus, I don’t care if your Lidstrom or who else you are. Chara has the best plus/minus in the league! nuf-said
I think Chara should win it, but think it will go to Lidstrom-mostly because of his career than this season’s stats.
If I were voting Chara would get my vote, Weber should be second and Lidstrom 3rd. I also think the hit will affect some of the voting.
Another stat: Weber led the league in hits and blocked shots. Those would be pretty important for a defenseman.
This isn’t close. It would be a total joke if it doesn’t go to Chara. TT and Chara are runaways
Some great points David. Well thought out post. These extra days can only help Chara regain some strength and stamina. No game 7 would also help tremendously for him and my ticker.
U.S womens beats Canada for gold. U.S World Jr.s beat Canada for gold. U.S under 18 beats Canada for gold and wins its third straight World Under 18. There is a trend here. U.S is getting better at the game than Canada. But with our immigration in the last generation we will be a force on the cricket field soon. Look our Sri Lanka. Were coming.
Also, I checked the Detroit stats on team defense +/- and Lidstrom has the worst among all Detroit D-men, as certain columnists on other sites who appear to not understand the game yet write to the largest national audience have suggested that team defense is responsible for Lidstrom’s poor +/-. That said, the Rafalski is +11 Ericcson is +5 Kronwall is +10 Salei is even, and Stuart is +4. While these are telling of less team emphasis on defense than a defensive-minded team like Nashville or Boston, they definitely tell Lidstrom is not the defensive dynamo he once was.
Comparing Weber and Chara, you compare The keystones of their respective bluelines, both of which are defensively-minded. That said, Weber has two more goal and two more assists than Chara, but is a +7. Better than Lidstrom, but four or five other defenseman on the blueline have better +/- including his partner, Ryan Suter. Chara, by comparison, leads the team and NHL in +/- shutting down top lines every night (to be fair, all three candidates do so, allowing for a more accurate comparison of +/-). Adam McQuaid is next in line with +30 and then ferrence with +22 and then a quick drop-off occurs bottoming out with Sidenberg’s +3. So there is more variation, but he has significantly more than his closest comparable on the team, Sidenberg, whose job it was to shut down second pairs. (kaberle is a wash because he played most of the season in Toronto, and is therefore statistically insignificant.) This tells us of the three candidates, Chara was best at actually shutting opposing top lines down, while generating nearly as much offense as his closest competitor, Weber. Lidstrom was able to put up better numbers offensively, but nowhere close defensively. Even on bad defensive teams, good defensive players tend to post a plus. Lidstrom’s team was not that bad defensively, therefore the argument that his rating is due to poor team defense is moot.
Chara should therefore win his second norris trophy.
As an aside, Visnovsky should have been nominated, he had a better defensive season than all of the nominees but Chara on a less defensive team than Detroit, and still had a better +/- and lead all d-men in points this season. The debate of who wins between Visnovsky and Chara would have been interesting, far less clear cut than what is present to us today.
Your Body is approx. 80% water, there are 260+lbs of Chara. considering a marathon runner (read: not very big) can lose up to 4lbs of water in a marathon, it makes sense Chara would lose significantly more to become dehydrated, also considering he is at least twice the size of most marathon runners.
Lidstrom should not win the Norris. He’s good, but the award is for best defenseman this season, not lifetime.
It’s all relative. A regular sized person can lose 5-10 lbs from a stomach flu. When you’re 260, a gastro can empty you out…dehydrate you. 10 lbs is believable.
As for the trophy, it’s not just a lifetime achievement…he still had close to 20 pts more than Chara. Lidstrom is still the best.
Your own PJ Stock once described playing against Lidstrom. “I had a break down the wing and Lidstrom caught up with me skating backwards”
Although the hit will definitely be a factor in the voting.
Chara won’t win it due to his hit and the controversy with the NHL and mainstream media that followed. Bummer.
On another note – who knew you could lose 10 lbs from extrema diarrhea. Maybe Chara should pass his water bottle over to Recchi so he drops a few lbs with the squirts.
Lidstrom is going to win it, lifetime achievement honor, plus not with the hit Chara laid
If Lindstrom wins this year with his minus, I think I’ll puke. Weber? really nice player, but I’ll like to see defense in the defensement that win the Norris. Really think Chara deserves it.