Few NHLers are fortunate enough and good enough to play into their forties, but Detroit Red Wings superstar defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom was a cut above, as this 2011 story explores.
At 40 years old, Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano is the NHL’s most senior player this season, but it wasn’t all that long ago another 40-year-old – Red Wings icon Nicklas Lidstrom – made the cover of The Hockey News.
Indeed, in this story from THN’s unmatched Archive, we saw Lidstrom still thriving in hockey’s top league.
(And this is your daily friendly reminder: for full access to THN’s exclusive 76-year archive, you can subscribe to our magazine.)
In this cover story, from THN’s March 7, 2011 edition – Vol. 64 Issue 19 – THN senior writer Ken Campbell travelled to the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, N.C., to talk to Lidstrom as well as other prominent hockey figures in regard to Lidstrom’s impact on the game. And those figures were properly effusive in their praise of the Swedish blueliner.
“There are two things I don’t remember Nick Lidstrom ever doing,” Hockey Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, who was behind the Wings’ for nine of Lidstrom’s 20 seasons, said of Lidstrom. “I don’t remember him ever falling to the ice, and I don’t remember him ever getting caught and leaving his partner with a 2-on-1.”
“(Lidstrom is) an effortless skater,” added then-Detroit GM Ken Holland. “He’s always going to have that hockey sense and that patience with the puck. He’ll have that when he’s 65. But what he can do at age 40 that other people can’t do is skate. You have all these kids coming into the league and it’s probably faster than it has ever been and the pace of the game doesn’t affect him at all, not one bit.”
In that 2010-11 season, Lidstrom generated 46 assists and 62 points – the ninth time he reached the 60-point plateau. But when asked about his legendarily sky-high panic threshold and vision for the game, Lidstrom was typically modest.
“I don’t really know,” Lidstrom told Campbell. “I think I’m just trying to anticipate plays and trying to read what’s going to happen out there. Experience comes in handy, that’s for sure. And positioning, too. You try to be in the right spot and that comes with reading the play.”
Incredibly, Lidstrom went on to play another season after the 2010-11 campaign, posting 11 goals and 34 points in 70 games. But when he spoke about another greybeard and Red Wings teammate, it was clear he was never going to be willing to let his skills slowly ebb away. He had a standard for himself, and he refused to lower it simply to stick around the NHL.
“I admire Chris Chelios for what he did,” Lidstrom said of Chelios, who didn’t retire until he was 48. “His ice time got cut more and more and there were some games he didn’t play, but he still had a love for the game and I admire that. But for myself, I have to feel motivated to play and feel I can contribute. If you’ve played a lot over the years and you’re used to being in situations like that, it would be hard for me to take a step back and sit out games and being a sixth defenseman and not playing a whole lot. That would be really tough for me.”
VINTAGE RED
Vol. 64, Issue 19, March 7, 2011
By Ken Campbell
RALEIGH, N.C. – The All-Star Game has been over for roughly an hour and three of Nick Lidstrom’s four sons are starting to get a little bored. You’d expect three boys ranging in ages from seven to 14 in various states of ennui to maybe, you know, start poking each other or at least cause some kind of general nuisance. But like their father, the boys are incredibly low-maintenance and they quietly wait. Hey, they probably drive the old man nuts sometimes, but in public they know how to play the part of obedient progeny.
All the while, Lidstrom is answering questions. After a while, you think he might want to scream out to everyone how much he liked the new all-star format, since he’s answered that particular query seven times – seven times! – in the space of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. (We kept track.) He continues to answer all manner of questions including how he feels about being plus-7, what it was like playing with Shea Weber, how he felt about Tim Thomas’s performance, whether or not he was getting any sweaters signed by his teammates, what he thinks of Anze Kopitar, Wayne Gretzky turning 50, Matt Duchene, Loui Eriksson, what it was like being down 4-0 in the first period, Peter Forsberg, whether or not he did any research before he chose his team and how great the fans in Carolina are.
“When they scored that 10th goal to make it a one-goal game,” he says of the 11-10 win by Team Lidstrom over Team Staal, “you could tell the guys on our bench really wanted to win it.”
He then allows himself a slight smile, as if to tell you he knows just how ridiculous that last statement sounds.
It should come as no surprise that even Nicklas Lidstrom’s attempts at humor are understated. For 19 seasons now, he has probably never brought a single person out of his or her seat, save for the four times the Detroit Red Wings have won the Stanley Cup since he joined them in 1991. His greatness is not measured in flashy end-to-end rushes, bone crushing hits or spectacular plays. It is measured in a consistent excellence that no player in the history of the league has achieved. It is measured in durability, respect and an attention to detail that is mind-boggling. Almost nothing about his game has changed since he joined the Red Wings and it could be argued that no player, ever, has played as well as Lidstrom is playing right now this late in his life.
Lidstrom turns 41 in April. There are players who have played far longer than Lidstrom has and there are others who have been better. But no player has combined excellence and longevity, save perhaps Gordie Howe, who scored 103 points and was third in NHL scoring when he was Lidstrom’s age.
“There are two things I don’t remember Nick Lidstrom ever doing,” said Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, who guided the Wings for nine of Lidstrom’s 19 seasons. “I don’t remember him ever falling to the ice and I don’t remember him ever getting caught and leaving his partner with a 2-on-1.”
You’d have to think Bowman is gilding the lily just a wee bit, but you get the idea. Lidstrom isn’t the perfect NHL player, but he’s about as close as you’re going to get, on and off the ice.
Actually, Lidstrom is becoming a lot of things these days. First, he has locked down the role vacated by Joe Sakic as the most respected player in the NHL. Secondly, he has worked his way into Gordie Howe-Steve Yzerman territory when it comes to the all-time greatest Red Wings and, particularly if he wins his seventh Norris Trophy this season, has entered the debate, along with Bobby Orr and Doug Harvey, as the game’s greatest ever defenseman. Really.
A seventh Norris this season would tie him with Harvey and put him one behind Orr. It would also make him the only player in league history to win a major individual award in a season in which he was 40 years old for the entire campaign. (Jacques Plante shared the Vezina with Glenn Hall in 1969, but turned 40 mid-season.) If he finishes first or second in Norris voting this season, he’ll join Ray Bourque as the only player to accomplish that feat 10 times. Being what Red Wings coach Mike Babcock calls “a genetic freak,” has allowed Lidstrom to be far more durable than Orr ever was. And even though he plays much the same way Harvey did, he has never had the self-destructive tendencies that shortened Harvey’s NHL career and his life.
“How many years did Orr play?” Babcock said. “You know what I’m saying to you? There gets to be a point where Mario, his best season was almost as good as Wayne’s best season. But the difference is, Wayne did it forever. To me, there’s something to that.”
But perhaps the most impressive aspect of Lidstrom’s career is that he has been consistently among the top defensemen in the league regardless of the style of play.
He was great when the style was wide open during the early 1990s. He was even better during the dead-puck era and has won half of his Norris Trophies since the lockout, when restrictions on obstruction created the new NHL and made the game faster than it has ever been.
Lidstrom has played about 450 games in the “new” NHL and has probably handled the puck in his own end about 5,000 times. He has received two minor penalties in all that time for shooting the puck over the glass. He does hook a lot more now, averaging 7.5 hooking penalties per season now compared to 2.3 before the lockout. He averages 2.5 tripping penalties a season now, 2.2 holding penalties and 2.2 interference penalties a season, all of which are close to double what he did before the lockout.
Lidstrom used to play 30 minutes a game and now he’s down to about 23. But those 23 minutes he plays are often the most important of the game. When the Red Wings are faced with a 5-on-3 against, Lidstrom is out there. He runs the power play and the penalty kill, consistently goes up against the opponents’ top lines, is on the ice when the Red Wings are either protecting a one-goal lead or looking for the tying goal late in the game and logs more ice time than anyone on the roster.
“He’s an effortless skater,” said Detroit GM Ken Holland. “He’s always going to have that hockey sense and that patience with the puck. He’ll have that when he’s 65. But what he can do at age 40 that other people can’t do is skate. You have all these kids coming into the league and it’s probably faster than it has ever been and the pace of the game doesn’t affect him at all, not one bit.”
It has been said of Lidstrom that he’s usually thinking six or seven plays ahead of the rest of the players on the ice. Red Wing players sometimes make a game in practice of trying to get the puck over Lidstrom’s stick and he simply bats them down and smiles. Bowman remarked that in the new NHL, guys who play the point on the power play have more time and space with the puck than any other player on the ice because forwards now back off from the point and collapse down to block shots instead of applying pressure. That’s what Bowman thinks has made Lidstrom so successful, particularly on the power play, in the post-lockout NHL.
“When I started to coach, the wingers covered the points and when Bobby Orr was playing in Boston, we always tried to put a guy there,” Bowman said. “I’m not sure that wouldn’t be a good strategy the way Lidstrom handles the point. I’m not sure I wouldn’t take a guy and try to eliminate him. He’s that good.”
Chances are, though, Lidstrom would probably think his way around that tactic. His on-ice intelligence has always been at Mensa-like levels. For example, Lidstrom actually misses the net a lot on the power play, particularly at Joe Louis Arena. But that’s because he knows how lively the boards are and if he puts his shot low enough and hard enough, it’s going to bounce back off the lively boards and end up right in front of the net for Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk.
Not surprisingly, Lidstrom has very little to offer when asked what goes through his mind when he has the puck. His questioner points at Lidstrom’s head and asks what is going on in there that gives him the ability to control the tempo of the game when the puck is on his stick.
“I don’t really know,” Lidstrom said. “I think I’m just trying to anticipate plays and trying to read what’s going to happen out there. Experience comes in handy, that’s for sure. And positioning, too. You try to be in the right spot and that comes with reading the play.”
Nobody knows how much longer Lidstrom will play in the NHL, but he can’t retire after this season, especially if he wins the Norris Trophy again, can he? Most of those close to Lidstrom think he’ll continue playing as long as the Red Wings are a contender and he can be a top-level defenseman. Even though he could probably play until he’s 50 if he wants, don’t count on that happening. Once his skills begin to fall off even a little, he’ll pack up the family and head back permanently to his hometown in Vasteras, where he has a parcel of land and intends to build a house on the shores of Lake Malaren, which flows into the Baltic Sea.
“I admire Chris Chelios for what he did,” Lidstrom said. “His ice time got cut more and more and there were some games he didn’t play, but he still had a love for the game and I admire that. But for myself, I have to feel motivated to play and feel I can contribute. If you’ve played a lot over the years and you’re used to being in situations like that, it would be hard for me to take a step back and sit out games and being a sixth defenseman and not playing a whole lot. That would be really tough for me.”
Well, the Red Wings aren’t figuring on a hike down the NHL standings anytime soon and after something of an off-year in 2009-10, Lidstrom’s skills look as sharp as ever. But there are family considerations. In the 20 years he has been in Detroit, Lidstrom never applied for U.S. citizenship and doesn’t seem to have any desire to live in North America once his career ends. When he’s at the rink, he thinks and talks English, but switches to Swedish at home with his wife, Annika, and four boys, 16-year-old Kevin, 14-year-old Adam, 10-year-old Samuel and seven-year-old Lucas.
Keeping true to their roots is very important to the Lidstroms, so much so that he wrestled with the possibility of returning to Sweden once his children started going to school.
This year, Kevin is living in Vasteras with Lidstrom’s sister and going to the same hockey academy/high school his father attended. His other three sons are playing AAA hockey in Detroit and their father is as involved in their hockey pursuits as his schedule allows him to be. Even though his children have all grown up in the United States, Lidstrom hopes they would play for Sweden if they were ever good enough to get to that level. (Wouldn’t it be great if Lidstrom pulled a Gordie Howe and finished his career playing with his son in the Swedish Elite League? Just putting it out there.)
“The kids say home is Detroit, but we still go back to Sweden every summer for two months,” Lidstrom said. “The plan right now is for us to go back and live in Sweden.”
Babcock and Holland can understand, but they just hope Lidstrom doesn’t have to make that decision anytime soon. Holland jokes that when Lidstrom finally does announce his retirement, he will announce his five minutes later in the next room. The two have been together since Lidstrom was drafted in 1989, the greatest one-team draft in the history of the NHL. That year, the Red Wings selected Mike Sillinger 11th, Bob Boughner 32nd, Lidstrom 53rd, Sergei Fedorov 74, Dallas Drake 116th and Vladimir Konstantinov 221st.
“(Lidstrom) was kind of a skinny, weak kid who was playing a level below the Swedish Elite League,” said Holland, who was scouting for the Red Wings at the time.
Holland never did see Lidstrom in his draft year. The credit for taking him goes to former European scout Christer Rockstrom and Neil Smith, who was the Wings chief amateur scout at the time.
The Red Wings were going to take Pavel Bure in the fifth round of that draft, but were told by the NHL their pick would have been voided because Bure was ineligible. Rockstrom convinced them to take Bure with their sixth round pick because he could prove Bure had played enough games in the Russian Elite League to make him eligible, but the Canucks took Bure three picks before the Red Wings sixth round selection.
“We were within a whisker of having Fedorov, Bure, Lidstrom and Konstantinov all from the same draft,” Holland said. “It’s amazing that it’s 2011 and we’re still living off that draft.”
Lidstrom, Draper and Adam Foote are the only active NHLers remaining from that draft. And while Foote and Draper are now fringe players, Lidstrom continues to be a pivotal part of the Red Wings fortunes. Babcock said the Red Wings intended this season to cut back his workload, but that notion was dispensed with early and went entirely out the window when Brad Stuart got hurt.
“The things we said we were going to do, those things are on a napkin in the summer when you’ve got this fantasy that you’re going to be healthy,” Babcock said. “The other night we’re down 5-on-3 and who’s out killing the penalty? Nick plays against the best people, he plays on the power play and the penalty kill and he plays the most minutes on the back end. It’s pretty hard to hide doing that.”
But Lidstrom does his best on that front by quietly going about his business. If Lidstrom were not captain of the Red Wings, Babcock doubts he would ever have to talk to him. When Holland tried to get him to sign a two-year deal in the summer, Lidstrom balked when he found out that the second year would go against the Red Wings salary cap even if he retired. Then he took a $1.25 million pay cut so Holland could fit him in. Not that he’s headed for the poor house. After this season, Lidstrom will have earned slightly more than $94 million during his career, which would put him second on the all-time list behind Jaromir Jagr. But one more year will, at least temporarily, give him the most career earnings in NHL history.
Players who retire from the NHL often do so for one of three reasons. They are too injured, they can’t keep up to the level of competition or they lose their passion for the game. It’s not the games that become a chore, it’s spending every summer preparing for the rigors of the next season that usually do a player in. But Lidstrom isn’t faced with a single one of those realities yet. Veteran players who do play often want to go to the team where they started their career and/or where they can win a Stanley Cup. Lidstrom has both of those in Detroit.
Holland said if it came down to deciding between what is best for his four boys and his career, the decision would be an easy one. But as long as Lidstrom can continue to make it work and the game is fun, look for him to keep coming back.
He hasn’t made up his mind about next season yet, but it’s hard to believe he would leave when his game is at such a high level and the Red Wings are a serious contender.
“That’s certainly what I’m selling,” Holland said. “He’s having a great year and our team is having a great year. And I’m hoping that when the year is over, he’s enjoyed it so much that he wants to do it all over again.”
And maybe again…and again.
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