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St. Nicklas - December 18, 2007 - Vol. 61, Issue 12 - Mike Brophy
MATS SUNDIN SWEARS he has never heard anybody say a bad word about Nicklas Lidstrom.
“I don’t know him that well, but every time he’s around the group, he’s a guy you love to have on your team,” says the Toronto Maple Leafs captain.
P-J Axelsson smiles when asked about Lidstrom’s dark side.
“No,” says the veteran Boston Bruins winger with a laugh, “I do not believe you’ll ever find anybody to say a bad word about Nicklas Lidstrom.”
Oh yeah?
Remember last season when that computer dude from Vancouver tried to get Canucks spare part Rory Fitzpatrick voted onto the starting lineup for the
Western Conference in the NHL All-Star Game? He ran a rather humorous smear campaign against some of the best defensemen in the game – Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer and, of course, Little Nicky:
“Nicklas Lidstrom…He claims to be an all-star defenseman, but the stats show otherwise. On November 3 of the year 2000, Nicklas Lidstrom was a minus-4 in a 6-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Those aren’t all-star numbers. What else is Nicklas Lidstrom hiding?”
Gotcha, Nick!
Truth is, it is next to impossible to say anything bad about the Detroit Red Wings superstar. As great a player as the 37-year-old defender is on the ice, he is every bit a wonderful person off it.
Right, Annika?
“Yes, of course he is,” says Lidstrom’s wife. “The only thing I can say is, he might be a little bit spoiled. He has a wonderful mom who does everything for everybody. He also has three sisters, so of course he was the golden boy.”
Golden boy to his family and pure gold for the Red Wings.
The European invasion, which started in the early 1970s, has brought many colorful and skilled hockey players to the NHL – from super snipers such as Jaromir Jagr, Teemu Selanne, Peter Stastny and Pavel Bure to extraordinary two-way threats such as Jari Kurri, Peter Forsberg and Sergei Fedorov to an acrobatic stopper such as Dominik Hasek. They are all worthy candidates for the title of best-ever European-raised and -trained NHLer.
Then there is Nicklas Lidstrom. Not the fastest or flashiest skater, perhaps. Not the biggest or roughest defenseman in the NHL, most definitely. But when you add up all the good things he does, from his responsible play in his own zone to the calculated offensive contributions, you have the best and most complete European player to ever skate in the NHL.
“I’ll tell you what I told Nick the last three or four times I negotiated contracts with him,” says Detroit GM Ken Holland. “If every player in the league was an unrestricted free agent and I had the first pick in the draft and my mandate was to compete for the Stanley Cup in one year, hands down my first pick is Nick Lidstrom.
“For the last 10 years we’re near the top of the league in points, he plays almost 30 minutes a game, always against the other team’s best players, he’s always one of the highest-scoring defensemen, most years we’re near the top of the league in power play, most years we’re near the top of the league in penalty-killing and most years we’re near the top of the league in goals against. He plays every critical situation. We won three Stanley Cups and five Presidents’ Trophies. We’ve been to the final four times in the last 12 seasons and he has been the one constant.”
Lidstrom’s ascent to the top of the mountain was gradual. After being chosen 53rd overall in the third round of the 1989 draft – behind defenders such as Adam Bennett, Doug Zmolek, Jason Herter, Jason Marshall, Lindsay Vallis, Jason Soules and Steve Bancroft – Lidstrom scored an impressive 11 goals and 60 points and was named to the NHL’s all-rookie team in 1991-92.
Over the years he has displayed a level of consistency that ultimately gained him recognition as not only one of the league’s most dependable performers, but one of the best all-around defensemen in the history of the game. Beginning in 1997-98, he was runner-up for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman three straight years. In the past six seasons, Lidstrom has laid claim to the award five times, third-most all-time behind Bobby Orr (eight) and Doug Harvey (seven).
He has led the Red Wings to Stanley Cups, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2002 and has been a first-team allstar eight times.
“He is so smart,” Holland says. “If somebody who didn’t really know hockey went to Joe Louis Arena and you told them they were going to see one of the best defenseman to ever play the game, they might not get it. You’re not going to see him whipping up the ice and making highlight-reel rushes. If you watch him and you really understand hockey, you’ll be overwhelmed and in awe because of his ability to pay attention to detail and his patience with the puck.”
And he plays the game fairly, too. In his 15 seasons, Lidstrom was assessed a paltry 372 penalty minutes in 1,176 games. Although he has never won the Lady Byng Trophy, given annually to the player who exhibits sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct with a high standard of playing ability, he has been a runner-up four times. A defenseman hasn’t won the honor since Red Kelly in 1954.
“He’s a good skater,” Axelsson says. “He gets himself in the right position so he doesn’t have to cheat and take penalties.”
The 6-foot-1, 193-pound Lidstrom has one career fighting major to his credit, way back in his first month in the NHL, against Buffalo’s Brad Miller on Oct. 30, 1991. Fact is, Lidstrom took a career-high 50 PIM two years ago, followed by 46 last year. Getting a little cranky in his old age?
“Not really,” he says. “They just call things a little tighter now.”
Ask Lidstrom and he’ll tell you the way he plays today is pretty much the way he has played the game all his life.
“My positional game is why I have become the player I am,” he says. “I’m not an overly physical player. I won’t run guys into the boards or knock them over. Positional play is one of the things I have worked on over the years to get better and better at. Even back when I was a kid, that was the way I played. I was good at reading plays and I developed that as my style of play.”
Lidstrom moved away from home when he was 16 to attend a school where playing hockey was part of the curriculum.
“We had five hours a week where you could replace one subject with hockey,” Lidstrom says. “All we worked on during those practices were our skills. We didn’t do any hard skating. Instead we worked on little things like developing handeye coordination. At night we would do our regular skates. I think most of the skill I have today comes from working at it back then.”
Flyers Defenseman Snubbed from NHL Ranking of Best DefensemenThe NHL Network failed to respect Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim and the work he did this past season.
