Let's not forget, the last Norris Erik got, Doughty still got the most 1st place votes....when the Kings missed the playoffs.
Sure, Burns is having a great year so far, but so did Erik last season, and all we hard was crickets from the media regarding his play. There is obviously a bias going on.
There's two ways burns isn't getting the Norris.
1) He uncharacteristically slows down. While Karlsson heats up even more than usual in order to cover the difference in points.
2) Burns takes cooking classes with Craig Anderson sometime within the next week in order to learn how to properly prepare a chicken breast.
The only other way I can see it happening is if the Canadian media (they all come together and form one giant person like an overweight 50 year old Voltron) decide that they don't want to look ridiculous for giving Doughty the Norris last year despite Karlsson's historic offensive season, so they psyche themselves out by giving it to Karl this year even know Burns finishes with 10+ more points than him and tops Karls season last year offensively.
Don't take this as me saying Karl should get it over Burns if the season ended with them as they are today, but there's a stronger argument for Karlsson to get it over Burns this season than there was for Doughty to get it over Karl last year. Apologists last year ultimately used the "didn't make the playoffs" as their out for deliberately choosing the wrong guys (don't pretend this is hyperbole, there were members of the media who went on record about the campaign for Doughty). But the year before, Doughty got more first place votes despite LA missing the playoffs, not to mention that the main reason the Norris doesn't go to a non-playoff team's player is because usually the reason teams aren't in the playoffs is because they don't have stand out performers like Karlsson. It's rare for a non playoff team to have a defender that finished top 5 in points and made such a dramatic difference when he was on the ice compared to when he was off of it.
Ultimately, as it is now, no doubt Burns should get the Norris. But I think a lot of fans are having their perception of this Norris race sullied by Doughty being handed the trophy last year. There's an argument to be made that among hardcore fans, that Norris win will do Doughty more bad than good as it'll always be seen as a black mark on his career. He's certainly good enough to win the Norris in the right year, but last year was the wrong one and it gives off the perception that he was never good enough to win the Norris so he needed the Canadian media to campaign for him to overcome another player having a historical season.