Adam Fox, who won the Norris Trophy in 2020-21 and finished as runner-up in the balloting last year, may not get a first-place vote for the award this season after falling out of the conversation within the opening month of the season when the defensemen was sidelined for 10 games after taking a leg-on-leg hit from Carolina’s Sebastian Aho on Nov. 1.
It didn’t particularly matter that Fox had started the year playing the best hockey of his career. Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes had already established himself the shiniest new toy vying for the Norris. The specter of Cale Makar is always there. It didn’t particularly help the lost cause when Fox’s re-entry proved somewhat problematic.
For the first time since Fox made his NHL and Rangers debut in the 2019-20 opener, you could see him sweat. Fox appeared hesitant. He was slow to pucks. He wasn’t getting passes through. His decision-making process and positioning appeared faulty. The 10 games he had missed while on LTI seemed like 10,000. Nothing came easy to him.
Somehow, Fox was almost ordinary. What that meant was, Fox was human.
But that was then. The league had its chance in the couple of months leading up to the all-star extravaganza while No. 23 was attempting to regain his feel, his touch and his instincts after being sidelined for the longest stretch of his career, by far. The league had its chance and blew it.
The Blueshirts went 25-7-1 after the break. Fox was on for 32 goals for and 18 against, a share of 64 percent that ranked sixth in the league among defensemen playing at least 500 minutes. Which is the cause and which is the effect?
The Rangers are riding into this first-round matchup against the Capitals with Fox at the top of his game. Indeed, Fox has added a dollop of physicality to his repertoire without sacrificing even a pinch of his world-class creativity and vision. He is playing with an edge and decisiveness that has elevated his immense value.
“I think it goes back to talking about playing instinctively because that’s kind of the player I am,” Fox told The Post this week. “I try to anticipate and trust instincts, reads and decisions, so once you’re in that rhythm it almost seems free-flowing and easy without a lot of thinking entering into it.
“Missing as much time and as many games as I did, it wasn’t necessarily a natural feel when I came back. I couldn’t really find it right away and when things aren’t going well it has a tendency to trickle, trickle, and keep going. But that’s similar to when you do find your groove and it all flows from that. It builds positively.
“I don’t know if there was a specific moment where I recognized that it had come back to me, but it seemed to turn coming out of the All-Star break. It turned for the team, too,” said Fox. “That’s when I was able to find that rhythm and play the way I want.”
Fox finished with a personal-best 17 goals while racking up 73 points in 72 games, the first year in which he posted at least a point per game. His shots and total attempts remained generally consistent with his career numbers other than the Long Island native’s shooting percentage, which rose to 12.4 percent this season off a 6.6 career average. Much like Artemi Panarin, he’s shooting from more high-danger areas while choreographing the attack with his usual elan. It is at the other end of the ice, though, where the 26-year-old might be disadvantaged at his listed 5-foot-11, 182 pounds, where Fox has ramped up his effectiveness and physicality.
“I think you’re right about Adam playing with an edge,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “Sometimes, you think about that as delivering a bodycheck that puts your opponent three rows up into the stands but that’s not what edge is about.
“Edge is about the puck battle and how quick you get there and your fight inside of that battle. It goes back to Adam’s decisiveness, and that’s not only about shooting the puck but it’s about his playmaking, about his breakouts, about his skating and attacking open ice.
“His decisiveness inside of his offensive instincts, that’s been really good. His defense has been excellent as well.”
The Fox-Ryan Lindgren pair first formed nine years ago with Team USA’s U17 squad and reunited on the Rangers the first month of 2019-20 had a 66.67 percent goal-share after the All-Star break, on for 26 goals for and 13 against. The tandem will see ifs fair share of Alex Ovechkin this round. Fox will report for duty.
“I like to think this is the best I’ve felt personally going into the playoffs,” said Fox, whose average ice time of 23:27 was just under a minute less than last year’s complement. “Now those 10 games I missed seem almost beneficial. I do feel more rested.
“You’re in a little different position going into the playoffs every year. The scenario is always different. But we’re looking forward to this. I’m looking forward to this.
“The group is well prepared for what’s coming up.”
Adam Fox is on top of his game.
And the Conn Smythe tops the Norris, every time, right?