From the Archive: "St. Nicklas" and Lidstrom's Dominance

Looking back on the 1990s and 2000s, it's clear that Nicklas Lidstrom was one of the league's best defensemen. But in the moment, it took some time for that realization to sink in.

The hockey world today remembers Lidstrom as a player whose offense impact was undeniable, and whose defensive play made him an all-situations player. That's certainly how Red Wings coaches saw him — and used him. Yet for a while, the rest of the NHL scarcely honored his dominance.

Until 1997, Lidstrom only earned sixth place in the Norris Trophy race to honor the NHL's best defenseman. But that's probably because voters can only consider the regular season. In the 1997 playoffs that saw Lidstrom's Red Wings win the Stanley Cup, he was brilliant. He played half of some games, doing so in every situation. If Detroit had a defensive question, the answer was as easy as putting Lidstrom on the ice and watching him take over.

After the playoffs, the world took notice of Lidstrom's impact. From 1997-98 on, he won the Norris seven times in 14 seasons, finishing runner-up three more times. His reputation as an elite defenseman became a legend of one of the greatest.

The way those playoffs served as a revelation of Lidstrom's greatness i

From the THN Archive, here's a look back at that 1997 playoff, where Nicklas Lidstrom first claimed his elite reputation.

"St. Nicklas: A Goalie's Best Friend" by Chuck Carlton

August 1, 1997 / Vol. 51, Issue 42

Before he turned three, Kevin Lidstrom had a good idea about how father Nicklas earns a living. Not that he’s terribly impressed, though.

“He knows that I play hockey,” the elder Lidstrom said. “He sees me on TV, but that’s no big deal. He knows that it’s Daddy and then he’ll go play with his stuff again. Like, whatever. Maybe in a few years, he’ll realize it more.”

In that regard, Kevin is no different than most of the NHL.

They watch Lidstrom log close to 30 minutes a night on defense, launch ferocious one-timers from the point, almost always win the 1-on-1 battles and they shrug. Whatever. Maybe it’s because he’s from Sweden, with the same blend-into–the-wallpaper personality seemingly indigenous to that Nordic country. Maybe it’s because he makes everything seem effortless on cue. Detroit Red Wings’ scout and former teammate Mark Howe opts for the former.

“It’s because of his personality,” Howe said. “He goes out and does a great job, but the media and everybody want to read about the players who are flashy and have the controversial quotes. He goes in, takes a shower, ices down and goes home.”

Lidstrom is the perfect poster boy for anonymous excellence. Red Wing teammate Darren McCarty was baffled by Lidstrom’s exclusion from a Norris Trophy finalist spot last season. “He’s always getting lost in the shuffle,” McCarty said.

Well, almost. Coach Scotty Bowman, not one to gush about players, salutes Lidstrom. “He’s one of the more underrated defensemen in the league,” Bowman said. “He’s a much better defensive defenseman than people give him credit for. When you compare him to other defensemen in the league, he’s right there.”

That was the case this season. Although Lidstrom wasn’t a Norris Trophy finalist or first- or second-team all star, he might have been both if the voting had been done after the playoffs. Wings' captain Steve Yzerman listed Lidstrom and Conn Smythe winner Mike Vernon as the team’s post-season MVPs.

Wings’ associate coach Dave Lewis, himself an NHL defenseman for 18 seasons, points to the Red Wings’ near-constant use of Lidstrom. “He’s one of the top five or six defensemen in the NHL,” Lewis said. “He’s the first guy we think of to play in a situation. He plays the left side, the right side, he kills penalties. He’s on the ice at the end of the game and he’s on the power play. There’s no time when he doesn’t play.”

The Red Wings’ dependence on Lidstrom, already high, will certainly increase this season. The limousine accident and subsequent head injury to Vladimir Konstantinov has friends, fans and teammates focused on his recovery to a normal life with his family, not hockey. His return for this season, at the least, is highly unlikely.

Aggressiveness, which Konstantinov brought to the table every shift, is the one area critics fault in Lidstrom’s game. Teammates say the only time they’ve seen Lidstrom visibly angry is when he lost a game of Helicopter, a card game brought to the team by its Russian contingent. Even Lidstrom acknowledges his restraint can be mistaken for passivity.

“It’s a tough question,” Lidstrom said. “I think it gets back to the desire to win. Some guys really show it with their aggressiveness, fighting or big hitting. I’m not a big hitter. I don’t fight. I feel I have that inside. I can bear down in those situations and get it out. I think I would be a better hockey player if I could get it out more, be more aggressive and show it in different situations. It’s hard to explain how to get it out.”

Lidstrom finished last season third in scoring among defensemen with 15 goals and 57 points in 79 games. In the playoffs, despite needing 47 shots to record his first goal, he finished with two goals and eight points in 20 games. He and partner Larry Murphy saw the most even-strength shifts against Eric Lindros and the Legion of Doom in the Stanley Cup final. Lindros and power winger John LeClair were a combined minus-10 in the final.

“I try to think of teams in the league that wouldn’t want to have him,” Howe said, “and I can’t think of any. From all the games I saw, I thought Brian Leetch was very deserving of the Norris Trophy. But I thought Nick had a great season, especially in the playoffs when we needed him to play between 25 and 30 minutes and against all of the top lines.”

Growing up in Vasteras, south of Stockholm, Lidstrom played hockey in the winter and soccer in summer and studied to be an engineer. Like most Swedish players, he idolized Borje Salming, Sweden’s first quality contribution to the NHL. “He was my hero, my idol. He was the big guy back then,” Lidstrom said. “I had the opportunity to play with him in the (1991) Canada Cup. He was my partner. It was a big thrill with him being the legend he is, especially back in Sweden.”

Lidstrom was still available in the third round of the 1989 entry draft, part of the Red Wings’ heist of Europeans with later-round picks. Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov and Konstantinov all were taken no earlier than the third round. Lidstrom came to Detroit in 1991, well versed in hockey and English, but still trying to learn North American culture. Countryman Johan Garpenlov, then a Red Wing, helped Lidstrom make the jump.

“There was a little bit of an adjustment, not as much as what our Russians went through,” Lidstrom said. “Sweden is getting more and more like America over here with fast food and everything. It’s real similar. Still, everybody has to make an adjustment. There’s the language. Even though I spoke English and understood everything, there are a lot of things there are different and words I don’t know. There are things maybe you guys take for granted that I had to learn over again.”

The hockey was second nature, despite adjusting to the smaller NHL rinks. He finished his rookie season of 1991-92 with 11 goals and 60 points and was runner-up to Pavel Bure of the Vancouver Canucks for the Calder Trophy. When Howe came to Detroit as a free agent, friend Brad McCrimmon had a scouting report. “He told me, ‘We’ve got a guy who's going to be one of the best defensemen in the league in a couple years,’” Howe recalled.

The second year was less successful for Lidstrom. He never got going and then had to adjust in mid-season to playing with Paul Coffey, acquired from the Los Angeles Kings in a trade. Partnered with Coffey, the highest-scoring and arguably the best-skating defenseman in NHL history, taught Lidstrom much and also forced him to be more disciplined. “Having Paul developed my game even more,” he said.

He bounced back with solid seasons and played in the All-Star Game in 1996 when he posted career highs in goals (17) and points (67). Along the way, he developed one of the best one-timers in the NHL.

“I think I started to work on it more and more after I came over here,” Lidstrom said. “1 don’t think I was shooting the puck as much when I played in Sweden. I was more setting other guys up for shots or down-low plays. Over here, my shots got better and better. We’ve been using it a little more, too. I’ve been kind of the guy, the puck gets to me and I shoot it. That developed after I got over here.

“The big thing is to have the goalie moving. When the puck is coming and he’s moving–there might be guys in front of him, he might not see the puck. He has got to react, get over there, and stop. The quicker it goes, the tougher it is for the goalie.”

While he’s a sinewy 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, Lidstrom comes with the wingspan of a pterodactyl. No banger, he doesn’t necessarily have to use muscle in front of his net to be effective. “He’s criticized unfairly,” Lewis said. “At the net, what he does is lock your stick so you don’t get a shot or a rebound. He doesn’t show a lot of emotion on the ice, but Nick is a great competitor.”

Along the way, Lidstrom is becoming the sort of player Salming was for an earlier generation. Anders Eriksson, Detroit's top defensive prospect and a native of Sweden, tries to incorporate parts of Lidstrom’s game into his. But Lidstrom’s appeal is not limited to one country. Detroit’s Aaron Ward, a Canadian, sees a living textbook for defense.

“As a guy playing the same position, it’s amazing for me to watch him,” Ward said. “He’s not 220 pounds, but he plays like a guy who can handle himself. He has tricks out there to maneuver opponents.”

Now if he could just get his son–and the rest of the hockey world-to take notice. ■

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