Hulking Hedman critical to contention
CUP FINAL: Tampa Bay blue-liner opening eyes with play, continuing trend of centrepiece stud defenders
CHICAGO— Borje Salming says he is “impressive.” So too does Nicklas Lidstrom.
When the compliments are raining down on you from the two most legendary defencemen Sweden has ever produced, it would be easy to get a swelled head.
But that is not Victor Hedman’s way.
With his flowing locks and movie star looks, Hedman has the type of appearance that easily could make him a regular on the big screen instead of being a guy focused on taking screened shots.
But at 24, there isn’t a shred of Hollywood in Hedman’s personality. Only humility.
That hasn’t stopped the global hockey spotlight from landing directly on his broad shoulders thanks to his outstanding performance against the Chicago Blackhawks in this Stanley Cup final, one that is making waves from the Madhouse on Madison to Malmo.
When Hedman’s brilliant slap pass from his own goal-line to the Chicago blue-line sprang Ryan Callahan Monday for the opening goal of Game 3, you could actually hear a few oohs and aahs sprinkled throughout the cavernous United Center. And when his highlightreel rush set up Cedric Paquette for the game-winner in Tampa Bay’s 3-2 victory, it was the exclamation point on an outstanding body of work.
When it comes to stud defencemen, this series was supposed to be about Chicago’s Duncan Keith, who entered the final as a Conn Smythe Trophy favourite.
Now he has company in the person of Tampa Bay’s hulking Hedman, who is bigger and at times faster, a recipe that has put him into the race to be named playoff MVP.
“In a lot of ways, yeah, he is a guy like Duncan who makes, more times than not, the players he’s out there with better,” Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said Tuesday of Hedman.
In putting his name in the same sentence as that of Keith, Hedman has become part of the common thread that teams now seem to require in order to grab hockey’s Holy Grail.
Remember when execs around the league vowed that if you wanted to capture the Cup you needed a top-end goalie? Yet when you scan the names of some of the Cup-winning goalies since the introduction of the salary cap in 2005, it’s not a list of Hall of Fame nominees.
Cam Ward, J-S Giguere, Chris Osgood, Antti Niemi, even Corey Crawford, who was outplayed Monday by Tampa’s Ben Bishop, the ailing Lightning goalie who looked like he winced with every save.
Indeed, it seems if you have just an above-average goalie who gets hot at the right time, it can be good enough. At the same time, the requirement for a Cup now seems to be that you have a star minute-gobbling defenceman on your roster — like Keith and Hedman.
In 2007, Hall of Famer Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger led the Ducks to the title.
In 2008, it was Lidstrom, whose inclusion to the Hall should be officially announced later this month.
One year later, Pittsburgh’s Cupwinning team featured Kris Letang and Sergei Gonchar.
Since then, both Keith (2010, 2013) and the L.A. Kings’ Drew Doughty (2012, 2014) have each won a pair of Cups while Zdeno Chara captured it with the Bruins in 2011. This time around, someone will hand the mug to either Hedman or Keith. And with that, the trend will continue.
“I think it’s easy for an individual to get better when you play with such great teammates,” Hedman said Tuesday. “It’s no different for me. I always go out there and want to make a difference on both ends of the ice. (But) for an individual, you need the whole team behind you. I’m fortunate enough to be on this team.”
Speaking via phone from Sweden Tuesday, Salming raved about Hedman’s mixture of size and speed.
The Hall of Fame defenceman said the likes of Hedman and Arizona’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson represent the new breed of Swedish blue-liners the Tre Kronors likely have never seen before.
“Sweden used to be known more for producing forwards like Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, the Sedins, Henrik Zetterberg, guys like that,” Salming said.
“But now there seems to be a new era of Swedish defenceman following Nicklas Lidstrom led by Victor. From what I’ve seen, he’s been very impressive.”
Elite players usually are. And that’s exactly what Hedman has become.