Lidstrom: Flawless on, off ice
As defender, Wing ranks 2nd to Orr
No one was as effective as Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom on a hockey rink. No one could make the first pass out of the zone the way he could. No one could bat pucks out of the air like Lidstrom could. No one was as brilliant in oneon-one defensive situations. No one had his endurance in games or his durability during a career.
No one was as polite as him. No one was as humble. No one carried himself with the same level of dignity and professionalism.
That’s why teammates called him the Perfect Human.
Whenever someone in the Detroit press box was struggling to decide whom to select as the three stars of the game, my advice was to pick Lidstrom because it was always a certainty that he was among the top three players on the ice.
Lidstrom, who retired Thursday, played hockey the way Faulkner wrote, Rembrandt painted and Sinatra crooned. He had a memorable style and elegance that was all his own.
Over the last decade or so, whenever you would ask young defensemen whom they liked to watch play their position, the answer was always Lidstrom.
In the pre-lockout NHL, Lidstrom was the master of legalized interference. No one was more adept at tying up an opponent without drawing a penalty.
The Swede was not a physical player, yet he could erase a player from an offensive rush just as thoroughly as if he had blasted him into the first row. He didn’t have an overpowering shot, but he guided his point shot into the upper corner of the net as if it were attached to a laser pointer. When the Red Wings rained goals down upon opponents in their best offensive years, it was usually Lidstrom who triggered the outburst with a pass or a shot.
He perfected the art of the shotpass, firing a puck from the point that was designed to go wide, bounce off the back boards and carom in front of the net. On some nights, everyone else was playing hockey, and Lidstrom was shooting pool.
Others viewed hockey as a chess game, but Lidstrom was usually playing three-dimensional chess.
After the rules changes of 2005, it was said that Lidstrom might be less effective because some of his best defensive moves became illegal.
Lidstrom simply adapted his game and won the Norris Trophy four more times.
In a sport in which Bobby Orr revolutionized the game with his puckmoving ability, the competition for a place on the list of the NHL’s all-time greatest defensemen is for second place.
Lidstrom, 42, has made a great case for that distinction, and that’s where I would put him, just ahead of Doug Harvey, Eddie Shore, Denis Potvin and Ray Bourque, among others.
He won the Norris Trophy seven times, one fewer than Orr. He won four Stanley Cup championships and an Olympic gold medal. He was the first European captain to hoist the Stanley Cup. He won a Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Lidstrom’s retirement is a major loss to the sport because no one has a better public image than Lidstrom. He’s a family man. He always does the right thing, says the right words.
Lidstrom’s only flaw is that he could not play forever. Not even the Perfect Human could do that.