Norstrom Proudly Wears This Hat

No matter how long Andy Murray coaches in the NHL, he’s never going to be far from Shattuck St. Mary’s, the high school that sent him to the Kings.

Motivational ideas are universal, he figures, which is why the Kings give out a “Hard Hat” award after every game, as did Shattuck.

It goes to the player judged by the previous winner as having done the dirty work necessary to win, and it’s why Mattias Norstrom had the Hard Hat entering Tuesday night’s game against Phoenix.

Jamie Storr, who won it Saturday for his work against New Jersey, presented it to Norstrom for his play against the New York Islanders a day later in a game in which Norstrom had no goals, no assists.

“Look at that face,” defense partner Rob Blake said Tuesday, laughing. “Does that look like the face of an offensive player?”

It looked like the face of a man who tried to stop a buffalo stampede single-handedly. Norstrom carried seven stitches in his lip, courtesy of the Islanders’ Tommy Connolly, and there were bruises.

It was the face of a player with seven hits and five blocked shots in 21 minutes 48 seconds. The face of a player who isn’t on the power play, but who gets all the penalty-killing time he can handle.

“I’m not going to be a player who’s going to be on the stat sheet,” Norstrom said. “For a player in my position, how the team does is the way you judge the way I play.”

He’s back with Blake as a partner after starting the season with skating with Jere Karalahti one game, Aki Berg the next. Blake skated with Mathieu Schneider in what was considered the No. 1 pairing, and Murray’s stance was that Norstrom and Blake could always be reunited because the Kings knew what they had with the two of them.

It would be easy to read that as taking Norstrom for granted.

“I never take him for granted,” Murray said. “The amount of playing time he gets tells you I don’t take him for granted.”

Actually Norstrom, who enjoys being paired with Blake, handles the idea that Murray can move him around rather well.

“I think it’s flattering,” he said. “It worked before, Rob and me. With anybody, when you play together for a while, you get used to where he is on the ice. You don’t have to think as much, just react.”