Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhiessan71
The argument used to be that Lidstrom's offense was the best anyone's could be in today's PP oriented league. That it was no longer possible for a D-man to be successful at even strength offensively like Leetch or Bourque or Coffey was.
Enter stage left...Erik Karlsson, who put up 35% more even strength points last year than Lidstrom did in his best year.
Proving that it's not that it wasn't possible, just that there weren't any D-men playing that were capable of doing it in the league any more.
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Bingo. Though I do think Lidstrom could have produced more at even-strength at the sacrifice of his defensive play. He wasn't as good at finding the balance as Bourque though (see the 1996 Western Conference Finals - and if you don't have it on VHS like me, I know it's on NHL Vault now). Thankfully for him, he wasn't on a team that required him to take as many risks.
I'm not going to get into the whole Lidstrom thing much more than that anymore. I know how each poster on here feels about him, but I've watched way too many Detroit Red Wings game to buy into the perception that Lidstrom is a top-ten skater, the best European player, or even simply as good as Ray Bourque. He's in the Sakic/Brodeur range - not the Bourque/Roy range.