1993-94 Norris Trophy Revisit

[Felidae]

The 1995-96 Norris trophy race is discussed quite a bit for how close it was (I'll get to that one eventually), but just a few years earlier, Bourque was involved in another very close Norris race with Scott Stevens that doesn't get talked about nearly as much.

Bourque had 26 1st place votes and 21 2nd place votes. Scott Stevens had 24 and 23. No one else was close to winning the trophy.


Statistically, Bourque had 91 points, 2nd most on his team but led defenseman in points, 20 goals, and was a +26 (also 2nd most on team


Stevens had 78 points which led his team, 17 goals, and was a +53, 1st in the league as well as a +17 gap over the next best teammate

The Bruins were 8th in GF and 10th in GA. NJD was 2nd in both categories

Al Macinnis and Sergei Zubov also had great years (Zubov led his team in points) Were 2nd and 3rd in scoring amongst defenseman.


Do you think Bourque deserved his win? Or should it have gone to someone else? If you think Bourque deserved the win, in hindsight do you think the Norris race was closer than it should have been, or just right?

Click to read more...

 

[The Panther]

There may have been one or two earlier seasons when Bourque didn't win the Norris and should have, but this season -- as much as it pains me to say it -- is one where I think he wasn't really the best Dman.

I think Scott Stevens should have won it.

 

[JackSlater]

I do think that Bourque was the correct pick but Stevens had one of the great runner up seasons, particularly among defencemen who never won the trophy in their careers. That was the year that you had glimpses of New Jersey Stevens and early Stevens, so dominant defensively and still a threat/contributor offensively.

 

[The Panther]

...so dominant defensively and still a threat/contributor offensively.

In fact, Stevens' 60 assists that season are still #1 in the FIFTY-year history of the Kansas City-Colorado-New Jersey franchise. (His 78 points are #1 for defencemen.)

 

[Stephen]

I don't stay up at night wondering about it, but balancing between trophy fatigue and Stevens' unique season where his offensive Washington self overlapped with the New Jersey version of that defensive killer, it could have gone to the runner up.

 

[Crosby2010]

I always knew it was close, but just looking it up again and 199-195 in voting is awfully close. Yeah, there are so many years Bourque could have won the Norris and didn't. The fact he won 6 and Lidstrom won 7 is a product of just how stacked the late 1980s and 1990s was when it came to defensemen in the NHL. Probably the toughest competition out of any era in NHL history. And a shout out to 1994, this was a very underrated year when it came to defensemen and their big years. Just look at the top 10 in Norris voting: Bourque, Stevens, (then a big gap in Norris votes), MacInnis, Zubov, Leetch, Chelios, Coffey, Lidstrom, Ozolinsh, Murphy. Talk about a who's who of that era. And they all had big years, everyone of them. Coffey would win a Norris the following year and this was Bourque's last Norris, although not his last great year. Leetch would win in 1997 and Chelios in 1996. Obviously Lidstrom starts much later in 2001. So that is a heavy, heavy year and you know, I think they got it right. If Stevens won, I could see it too, and it would just end up as another year where you said that Bourque had a monster year but didn't win it. I'm fine with how it went and I would be fine if Stevens took it too.

 

[overpass]

Bourque sprained his knee and missed the final 12 games of the regular season. Newspaper articles about his injury said he was one of the leading candidates for the Hart trophy when he went down. It's likely that without the injury Bourque would have easily won the Norris and received significant Hart votes.

As it happened, Stevens had an excellent season and either him or Bourque would have been a deserving Norris winner.

 

[MadLuke]

That did look like an Hart finalist type season;

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The gap between Bourque D pair and the rest of the bruins was quite something....

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en route for an clear Norris win:

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I do remember the buzz of an Al afrate-Bourque Bruins and remember being deflated almost right away but did not remember it was a Bourque injury.

 

[The Panther]

It's a little surprising, isn't it? Given that Bourque missed 12 games and given that Jersey finished well ahead of Boston in the standings (and Brodeur wasn't yet being treated as a demi-God by hockey media), it's surprising to me that Bourque still pipped Stevens.

 

[67 others]

The right guy won. And it wasn't particularly close. Stevens did have a fantastic year. But Bourque was well ahead of him.

I guess you could make the argument that Stevens was better ES. On the PK, Bourque was superior, as well as the PP. Offensively and Defensively, in transition, Bourque was better.

The coaches poll halfway through the year where you can only vote for opponents, not your own players were pretty in Bourque's favor.
Toronto Star Coaches’ Poll, January 22, 1994

20 of 26 coaches took part. Coaches were instructed to consider the current season only, and could not vote for their own players.

Best Player: Sergei Fedorov (15), Wayne Gretzky (3), Ray Bourque (1), Doug Gilmour (1)

Best Defensive Defenceman: Ray Bourque (8), Chris Chelios (4), Scott Stevens (3), Teppo Numminen (1), Mark Tinordi (1), Nicklas Lidstrom (1), Sylvain Lefebvre (1), Eric Desjardins (1)

Best Offensive Defenceman: Brian Leetch (8), Ray Bourque (7), Paul Coffey (3), Chris Chelios (1), Al MacInnis (1)

Best Bodychecker: Eric Lindros (9), Bryan Marchment (3), Scott Stevens (3), Wendel Clark (1), Keith Tkachuk (1), Darius Kasparaitis (1), Adam Graves (1), Mark Tinordi (1)

In the end, he outscored Stevens by 13 points in 11 less games, and was considered quite a bit better defensively. Stevens had presence and physicality and was a joy to watch in that system of Lemaire's.

 

[Felidae]

The right guy won. And it wasn't particularly close. Stevens did have a fantastic year. But Bourque was well ahead of him.

I guess you could make the argument that Stevens was better ES. On the PK, Bourque was superior, as well as the PP. Offensively and Defensively, in transition, Bourque was better.

The coaches poll halfway through the year where you can only vote for opponents, not your own players were pretty in Bourque's favor.
Toronto Star Coaches’ Poll, January 22, 1994

20 of 26 coaches took part. Coaches were instructed to consider the current season only, and could not vote for their own players.

Best Player: Sergei Fedorov (15), Wayne Gretzky (3), Ray Bourque (1), Doug Gilmour (1)

Best Defensive Defenceman: Ray Bourque (8), Chris Chelios (4), Scott Stevens (3), Teppo Numminen (1), Mark Tinordi (1), Nicklas Lidstrom (1), Sylvain Lefebvre (1), Eric Desjardins (1)

Best Offensive Defenceman: Brian Leetch (8), Ray Bourque (7), Paul Coffey (3), Chris Chelios (1), Al MacInnis (1)

Best Bodychecker: Eric Lindros (9), Bryan Marchment (3), Scott Stevens (3), Wendel Clark (1), Keith Tkachuk (1), Darius Kasparaitis (1), Adam Graves (1), Mark Tinordi (1)

In the end, he outscored Stevens by 13 points in 11 less games, and was considered quite a bit better defensively. Stevens had presence and physicality and was a joy to watch in that system of Lemaire's.

Interesting, I expected it to be closer between Stevens and Bourque for best defensive defenseman.

Especially since statistically, Stevens had a significant +/- gap over his teammates while Bourque didn't. I'm assuming there's missing context though, as I didn't watch the season.

 

[MadLuke]

Especially since statistically, Stevens had a significant +/- gap over his teammates while Bourque didn't. I'm assuming there's missing context though, as I didn't watch the season.

Feel more like the other way around:

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Bourque first pair completely dominate the team
+26/25 while every other defenceman are in the negative, -11, -17 while playing only 44 and 51 games. Considering the relative volume of minutes and who they faced that show a very large overall gap.

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The gap between Stevens and Niedermayer pairwas much lower in comparison, but to be fiar that was Niedermay, driver, Dayneko, Fetisov, etc.. the lack of separation from Stevens versus Bourque could be more telling about how good the devils defensive squad and empty the Bruins was, than their respective play.

 

[67 others]

Interesting, I expected it to be closer between Stevens and Bourque for best defensive defenseman.

Especially since statistically, Stevens had a significant +/- gap over his teammates while Bourque didn't. I'm assuming there's missing context though, as I didn't watch the season.

+/- for ES play, the Bourque/Sweeney pairing was significantly ahead of the rest of the team with +26 and +29. The rest of the team Dmen were quite behind.

Also, Look at each team's PK, where the best defensive Dman is most needed.

Bruins had the 2nd best PK in the league with 84.66%, just barely behind 1st overall. The devils were 15th with 81.12%. Powerplay is similar with bruins 3rd and Devils 17th.

Stevens was very good defensively, but Bourque is ranked among the greatest of all time in that regard, year after year. The Coaches polls are not perfect, but they do tell a lot of things trophy voting alone doesn't

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

so as of bourque’s last game of the regular season, he was 8th in pts, 3rd in assists, 2nd in PP scoring, and 15th in +/- with the next highest dman on his team that wasn’t his partner at -1.

so subtract 12 games from a probable hart finalist season, how does that square with combining (i assume) peak defensive stevens combined with a career high near pt/game scoring pace, leading the league in +/- by 5 and helping his team jump 19 pts in the standings to finish second overall?

 

[MS]

Stevens outscored Bourque 50-34 at ES but Bourque was a PP monster.

I remember at the time thinking that Stevens was jobbed but I was 14 and still thought that more PIMs was a good thing.

 

[67 others]

Stevens outscored Bourque 50-34 at ES but Bourque was a PP monster.

I remember at the time thinking that Stevens was jobbed but I was 14 and still thought that more PIMs was a good thing.

Bourque also had 5 shorthanded points on the 2nd best PK in the league

 

[Steve Kournianos]

Bourque would have been a runaway winner almost any other year but Stevens led the second-best team in the league in scoring with mostly ES production while Bourque ran up crazy PP numbers. IIRC, Stevens didn’t always QB the power play (I think Driver and even Modry did it often). The debate was settled in the 1994 playoffs when they went H2H. I was actually surprised Stevens didn’t win the Norris, TBH. Devils had not yet developed a winning reputation and Stevens was their star.

Personally, I think Stevens should have been a Hart finalist that season. He provided elite defense scoring, elite/unmatched shutdown defense, leadership, and arguably the nastiest intimidation factor among league stars despite playing on a team that already had Peluso, McKay, Daneyko, etc.

 

[The Panther]

I don't have a problem with Bourque winning it, but I'm still surprised he did so in that:
(a) the Devils were considerably better than the Bruins (in fact, they had a big 'break-out' season, which usually atracts swing voters)
(b) Stevens had a considerable plus/minus edge
(c) Bourque missed 12 games

Any one of these factors (esp. a and b) have tilted Hart / Norris voting in the past, but this season it didn't.

 

[67 others]

I don't have a problem with Bourque winning it, but I'm still surprised he did so in that:
(a) the Devils were considerably better than the Bruins (in fact, they had a big 'break-out' season, which usually atracts swing voters)
(b) Stevens had a considerable plus/minus edge
(c) Bourque missed 12 games

Any one of these factors (esp. a and b) have tilted Hart / Norris voting in the past, but this season it didn't.

-The devils had 106 points, the bruins 97. That's 4 wins and a tie. Not sure I would call that substantially better. Its possible had Bourque played those last 12 games without the knee sprain they come away with more points and close that 9 point gap. The Devils played considerably better as a team, while Boston was carried by a few

-Plus minus is one factor, but not crippling. The bruins having a powerplay and penalty kill which WAS substantially better than the Devils meant something. Also, Bourque and his partner were +26 and +29 on a team where 18 players were minus players and had Jon Casey in net. This was really a top heavy team where Oates and Bourque carried them, with Neely carrying when healthy as well. The Devils had 12 players who were over +20 and zero minus players on the team and Brodeur was tied for 6th for the vezina. I mean, Dman Bruce Driver was +29 on that devils team, which was higher than Bourque's +26, but we know it doesn't mean anything. Jason Smith was the worst Devil Dman with +7 and Im sure he WAS better than the bruins Dmen Gordie Roberts and David Shaw, who were -11 and -13 lol

-Bourque missed 12 games with that knee sprain and still outscored Stevens and was Bourque was considered better defensively by coaches and his peers.

Stevens is among my favorite players and that season was amazing. but i still take Bourque there.