Lidstrom The Best Ever? Prove To Me Otherwise

I never saw Doug Harvey play, but I felt like I have.

Harvey, the seven-time winner of the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman, played in the neanderthal days of the league, when the number of franchises was six and a “western swing” meant games in Chicago and Detroit.

I feel like I know of Harvey’s skill set because of my late father, who would go on and on to me about the chubby blue liner who played mainly for Montreal.

“He’d get maybe one, two goals a year,” my dad would say, always giving me the same litany about Harvey. I’d heard the case over and over — but all was good. “He could block shots, defend in front of his net. He was just a good defenseman,” he would go on, emphasizing the word as if to besmirch those who “claim” to play the position nowadays. There was nothing fancy or flashy about Doug Harvey, my dad would drill into me. He was just a good defenseman.

Today, Harvey is one of only two defensemen who have won more Norrises than the Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom, who picked up Norris No. 6 last night in Toronto. Harvey has seven; the all-time leader, someone named Robert Orr, has eight.

I’ve written in this space that Lidstrom is modern day sports’ answer to the Tigers’ Mechanical Man, all-world second baseman Charlie Gehringer, who owned the position in the 1930s. Plenty has been written about how Lidstrom is never out of position, and rarely gets burned, and always seems to make the right play, etc.

He’s just a good defenseman. Of course, he can produce points, too — something defensemen didn’t start doing until the late-1960s. Thanks to one man, that all changed.

Orr thrilled us — and yes, I DID see him play in his prime — with his revolutionary method of defending, which was based on the theory that you can’t score if I have the puck, and you can’t beat us if we overpower you with our offense. No defenseman had come up with the end-to-end rush until Orr came along. And no defenseman had come close to leading the league in scoring, until Orr did that, too. But his knees betrayed him, or else Orr would have won maybe 10, 11 Norrises.

It’s plenty likely that Lidstrom will catch and surpass Harvey, thus tying Orr. And it’s not bad money if you’d like to wager it on Lidstrom, when all is said and done, surpassing both of them and standing alone as the most-winning Norris defenseman of all time.

Doug Harvey

Which begs the question — and you probably saw this one coming paragraphs ago.

Is Nick Lidstrom the best defenseman ever?

Actually, you’re too late; I’ve already asked this, and answered it. In that same rant about Lidstrom being mechanical, I came to my own conclusion: Yes, Nick Lidstrom will go down as the best defenseman to ever lace up an NHL skate.

But you haven’t seen Doug Harvey!!

No, but even dear old dad might agree with me here. He died in 1996, in the middle of Lidstrom’s sixth NHL season. Not long enough to fully appreciate how good No. 5 is now. I mean, we all knew Lidstrom was good back in ’96, but you can’t tell me that he hasn’t gotten better in the 12 years hence. Lidstrom does the things that had my dad mesmerized by Harvey. The only thing Harvey might have on Lidstrom is the propensity to block shots with his body, but some of that is because the difference in eras. Besides, I haven’t seen where Lidstrom’s infrequency in this area has cost the Red Wings anything to speak of.

I’m not normally one to declare today’s star athlete better than those of yore. I can be curmudgeonly that way, I admit. But I’m just not seeing where Lidstrom — who I’ve seen from the get-go — could possibly not be doing something that someone else did — which would, in turn, make that someone else better than he is. Forget the shot-blocking thing. That’s nitpicking, and you know it. Who else has played this game, night in and night out, with the same monotonous level of excellence as Nick Lidstrom has? I’m talking every night.

Don Cherry’s favorite: Bobby Orr

Sometimes these post-season awards can be handed out based on reputation. Multiple winners, regardless of sport, aren’t always worthy. That’s something else you already know.

But being a six-time Norris winner isn’t the same as being a six-time Pro Bowler. Not even close. Lidstrom wins the Norris every year, because every year he’s the best defenseman the league has to offer. Simple as that. What’s more, he wins it every year because no one else is even close to him; no one to even challenge him and maybe break his streak, if even to keep things mildly interesting. He’s not only the best, he’s far and away the best.

Orr dominated his position for a time, but mainly because he was a pioneer of sorts. No one else did, or could do, what Orr did when he sprang his offensive skills on an unsuspecting league. And Orr would occasionally leave his position vulnerable, being caught up ice more than once. Of course, before his knees went bad, he had the speed to compensate at times.

Mr. Norris — I mean, Lidstrom

Lidstrom dominates now in a league that is filled with offensive-minded blue liners, and tough stay-at-home ones, too. No disrespect to Harvey, but when he played, there were perhaps 24-to-30 defensemen who played every night in the NHL. Lidstrom plays in a league where 180-to-200 defensemen play regularly. So is it more impressive to be first among 30, or first among 200?

Harvey dominated in his own way. Orr dominated in his own, revolutionary way. And now Lidstrom dominates, in his mechanical, robotic, perfect way.

The only thing Harvey and Orr have on Lidstrom, in my opinion, is more Norris Trophies to their credit. Soon, they won’t even have that.

Lidstrom The Best Ever — Even An Oldtimer Must Cede That

Once, there was Doug Harvey — my dad’s favorite, by the way — who was a shot blocking maniac and so much of a stay-at-home defenseman that I wouldn’t be surprised if he received his mail in front of the Red Wings’ (and Canadiens’) goal crease. There was also Bob Goldham, a pillar of the Red Wings’ Cup-winning teams of the 1950s. Goldham would later become a Hockey Night In Canada analyst, talking about the current blueliners who were so inferior to him in his heyday.

Then along came Bobby Orr, and everything anyone knew about defensing in hockey went out the window, for Orr was a dazzling combination of skating, scoring, and playmaking — from the “D” — for the great Boston teams of the late-1960s, early-1970s. It’s an overused term, but Orr truly revolutionized the way the position was played, and the way it was scouted.

Orr spawned the likes of Paul Coffey, Raymond Bourque, Al Iafrate, and others who would use speed and offense to, at times frankly, mask some of their defensive deficiencies.

Then there were the combos, like Al MacInnis, Chris Chelios, and Scott Stevens, who could do a little of both, but who had mostly a thick thread of nastiness in them.

Another defenseman exists today who is not revolutionizing the game. He’s merely perfecting it.

I’ve written it before, and I’ll write it again. You can have all of them — Harvey, Goldham, Orr, Bourque, and the rest — and I’ll take Nick Lidstrom and trump you every time.

Sunday, Lidstrom will play in another All-Star game, and it’s ironic, because though he is an annual participant, the game has never been about defense. But that’s OK; his booming shot and precise passes go just fine there, too.

I’m usually an old fuddy-duddy when it comes to comparing players of different eras, which is always a futile endeavor anyway. But when it crops up, I’m likely to shove Oscar Robertson in front of you for every Michael Jordan reference, and Jimmy Brown for every Barry Sanders mentioning.

But I’m changing my tune with Lidstrom, who I’m convinced is playing defense better than anyone ever has in the National Hockey League. That’s right — EVER.

Here’s Anaheim Ducks coach Randy Carlyle — defending Cup champ coach and possessor of Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer on his team.

“What he’s been able to accomplish and how he plays the game, he is (on) a different level,” Carlyle was quoted in today’s Free Press. “You can see it when he’s out there, you can see the composure. You can see the things that he does. Nobody gives him enough credit for his defensive game.”

Nobody except me, who is unashamedly putting Lidstrom at the top of the list as the best ever.

Carlyle spoke after the Red Wings’ 2-1 win over the Ducks Wednesday night.

“He’s playing against the best players in the league, and he’s performing at the highest level. He defends extremely well with his stick.”

That last sentence might be a candidate for biggest understatement in league history, too.

If a photo exists of Lidstrom being caught out of position, surely it’s a fake — a PhotoShop manipulation

Carlyle, who obviously couldn’t help himself, went on.

“He’s not a big guy, but his positional play is — I don’t know if there’s a player that plays better in that position. (author’s note: There isn’t, Randy.) This guy is always up there and is always doing things that never seem to amaze people because, when you see him every day or you watch a lot of him, you kind of take it for granted. And that’s what those elite players can do: They can make the most difficult task look easy.”

When I wrote a similar heap of praise upon Lidstrom last season, I compared him to the Tigers’ old second baseman, Charlie Gehringer, whose nickname was The Mechanical Man for his seemingly effortless way he would hit over .300 and play stellar defense. I suggested that Lidstrom was hockey’s Mechanical Man, and Carlyle’s comments are in line with that way of thinking.

But enough coachspeak. Listen to Lidstrom’s contemporary, Pronger.

“If there’s a lack of physical play [in Lidstrom's game], I certainly think he makes up for it by being in the right place at the right time. The way he can pass the puck and the way he sees the ice certainly makes him a special player and a guy who can control the tempo of a game. It takes a special player to be able to do that.”

The Red Wings have had not only two of the game’s greatest players, but also two of the most humble. In Lidstrom and Steve Yzerman, I don’t know if you could drag a brilliant word about their own play out of them. The new captain is just as gracious and eloquent as his predecessor, conducting himself with the quiet grace that just adds more to his aura. They’re both like Gordie Howe in that way.

Howe, the greatest right winger of all time — and maybe the best player, too — and Yzerman, one of the top five centermen ever, are now joined by Lidstrom, who I’d say became the best defenseman ever about a year or so ago.

This fuddy-duddy, whose memory of watching athletes perform dates back to 1970, is willing to concede that a modern day player is the best, all-time, at what he does. I don’t do that very often. Usually, it kills me to even consider it.

But, as with everything else he does, Nick Lidstrom makes it easy.