The Norris Debate: Is Green a Defensive Liability, Keith a Defensive Power House, Doughty Out of the Running?

The candidates for the Norris Trophy, the NHL's award for best defenseman, were announced today. The nominees were not surprising, being sophomore star Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings, Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks, and the high scoring Mike Green of the Washington Capitals. With the announcement came debate about whether Green even deserved his nomination, as Green is known for being a defensive liability to his team and an exclusively offensive defenseman.

I'm going to do some elaborate statistical analysis to decide who I think deserves the Norris as well as, regardless of the answer to that question, whether Green is such a defensive liability. Prepare for a long post.

I suspect that he isn't. The perception seems to be based on a couple mistakes in the playoffs last year that unfortunately were at important moments, combined with the fact that his record breaking offensive performance makes it easy to assume he's bad defensively for those who want to be appear to have nuanced opinions. Incidentally, I believe the value of offense in hockey is underestimated in general and haven't noticed him to be particularly bad defensively, especially considering how much time Washington appears to have possession and the fact that you can't be scored on when you have possession (unless you're Dan Boyle or Bryan McCabe, that is).