Greatest Defenseman All Time - Bobby Orr or Nick Lidstrom

If you ask the average hockey fan, who was the greatest defenseman to ever play the game of hockey, most would say it was Bobby Orr.  Orr was great, he played 12 NHL seasons between the years 1966 and 1979.  He accumulated 270 goals and 915 points in only 657 games.  He transformed the way defenseman play the way he would rush the puck up the ice from the offensive zone.  There truely was no one that could hold a candle to him during his career.  He won the Norris Trophy 8 times, the Hart Trophy for league MVP 3 times, and the Conn Smythe trophy twice for playoff MVP.  However his career was cut short because of constant knee injuries towards the end of his career.

There's another defenseman that is changing opinions of who is the greatest defenseman to play, and that's Nick Lidstrom.  Nick Lidstrom has been the best defenseman in hockey for most of the last 20 years.  In 20 seasons, all with the Detroit Red Wings, Nick Lidstrom is a slick skating defenseman with elite offensive skill as well as incredible defensive skills.  In 1,542 games played Lidstrom has 263 goals, 1,134 points, he as won the Norris Trophy for best defenseman 7 times, and the Conn Smythe trophy once. At age 41 he is still the top, if not a top 5 defenseman in the league today.  Throughout his career he has missed a grand total of 32 games. 

For me there is no question that Nick Lidstrom is the greatest defenseman ever to play the game of hockey.  Here's the major reasons why I feel this way.

1. Lidstrom has played his entire career without any major injuries while Orr's career was cut short by injury.
2. Lidstrom plays in the modern era of 30 NHL teams, and the players that play today's game are in another league in terms of skill, talent, and speed compared to players that played in the 1960's and 1970's. 
3. Lidstrom has never been on a team that missed the playoffs and year in and year out the Detroit Red Wings are among the elite contenders to win the Stanley Cup.
4. Bobby Orr is known mostly for his offensive prowess, but Nick Lidstrom is known for both is Offensive skill as well as his elite defensive skill.
5. Nick Lidstrom's defensive play rarely gets him called for a penalty. Lidstrom can play physical but his defensive stick skill is better than anyone ever to play the game.

Now you may disagree with this, but here are a few arguements from fans that say Bobby Orr is the greatest defenseman of all time.

1. Bobby Orr changed the way the game is played.
- Yes he did, however Patrick Roy changed the way the game is played for goaltenders yet Martin Brodeur is considered the top goaltender of all time.  Eric Lindros's career came to a screeching halt due to injuries but he changed the game due to his size and dominance, players like Rich Nash and Joe Thorton follow in Lindros's steps as elite power forwards. And yet Lindros isn't even in the conversation of greatest player in the game, much less greatest center of all time.
- Nick Lidstrom changed the NHL game too, before Lidstrom was drafted, European trained players were considered as wild cards and no team would invest a high pick in a European born player.  Today European born players are drafted in the same positions as North American born players.

2. Bobby Orr's career was cut short by injuries, if it wasn't he would be unanimously the top defenseman in the game. 
- Pleanty of NHL player's have had their careers cut short due to injuries.  Ed Belfour, Mario Lemeiux, Peter Forsberg are a few big names that come to mind who were elite players but had their careers cut short due to injury.

Nicklas Lidstrom is the greatest defenseman to ever play the game of hockey. There's nothing more to say.

The Crosby Hit

A year and 19 days ago to the date there was a hit that shook the world.  At the end of the 2nd period of the 2011 Winter Classic held in Pittsburgh between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins, David Steckel and Sidney Crosby collided each other after a broken play in the Washington Capital's defensive zone.  As the play broke down the puck went out of the zone, David Steckel was heading up ice to join the rush.  As Steckel was heading up ice, Crosby turned right into Steckel's shoulder.  For all you Penguin fans, you need to realize this, it was an accidential collision.  Crosby skated into Steckel who has 7 inches more of height on Crosby as well as a 25 pound weight advantage.  After the hit Crosby was clearly shaken up but he came back and played the rest of the game.  He came back and played in the Penguins next game against the Tampa Bay Lightning where he was hit again by Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman.  With the exeption of 8 games played in November/December 2011, Crosby has been out with a concussion ever since.  The reason Crosby has been out for so long wasn't because of the Steckel hit, it was because of the second hit he took to the head courtesy of Victor Hedman.  Crosby was concussed on the Steckel hit but because he wasn't diagnossed properly, the second hit he took from Hedman is what is keeping Crosby out.  If Crosby was diagnossed properly after the Winter Classic it would have probably been a mild concussion that he would have had to deal with, he would have been out a month to two months. But because he wasn't diagnossed and played with a concussion he has been out of the game for more than a year.  The media has to stop villifiying David Steckel, it was an accident.  And if you don't realize this you shouldn't be watching hockey, you shouldn't be watching a contact sport, rather a non contact sport such as Figure Skating or Syncronized Swimming.

How cool would this be...

40 years ago there was a huge, monumental confrontation.  The 1972 Summit Series that featured Russia's best players squaring off against the best players (NHL) in team Canada.  The series featured iconic hockey legends such as Phil Esposito, Ken Dryden, Bobby Clarke, Vladislav Tretiak, Alex Yakushev, among others.  It was a "friendly" series of hockey but it was so much more than that.  It was a clash between political systems, cultures, and customs.  During the Cold War, there was little if any interaction between the west and communist Russia, and other than in the olympics, there were little if any competition in any sports.  This series was supposed to be a cake-walk for team Canada.  But the Russian team was highly under-estimated by the hockey world and it made it one of the greatest matcups in hockey history. 

40 years later... how incredibly awesome would it be if Team Canada and Team Russia did it all again.  Since Russians play in the NHL now the series wouldn't have the same mysterious interest that it had back in '72 but it would still be an incredible confrontation between the two global hockey powers.  It would be a great hockey matchup of the two playing styles, with Team Russia playing a fast paced, high tempo, offensive minded game, and Team Canada's style of play of a balance between defense and offensive skill, physicality, and great goaltending.  The series could feature some of the game's top players in Malkin, Datsyuk, Bryzgalov, Luongo, Doughty, Iginla, and I haven't even mentioned the Crosby-Ovechkin matchup. And like they did with team Sweeden, they could have neutral games too against other international teams.

Going into next season there is little-no hope that this series could happen but it would be incredible if they did this 10 years from now in 2022 to honor the 50 year anniversarie of the series.  A rematch of the series would draw interest from hockey fans all over the globe.  And it would be special.  Just a thought...

The Marchand hit.

In case you missed it Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins was suspended by the NHL for a dirty hit on the Vancouver Canuck's defenseman Sami Salo that occurred on Saturday afternoon.  He was suspended for 5 games.

If you missed the hit here's a link for youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGD5DbljtfE

In the play the Vancouver Canucks are controlling the puck in the Bruins zone, during the play Marchand is covering Salo at the defensive point, throughout the play the two tangle up and exchange cross checks and a few other shots.  When Brad Marchand (5"9, 183) goes down to get the puck in the corner Sami Salo (6"3', 215) drops down to make a body check.  As Salo turns to put his shoulder into Marchand, Marchand drops his knee and puts his shoulder into the back of Salo's knee, flipping him head over heels over, Salo landed on his head and left the game with a concussion.  Marchand was issued a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for clipping, as well as the suspension.

Clipping in hockey and what Marchand did is completely dangerous and cowardly, clipping can cause lower body damage to knee's, ankles, hamstrings, quads, and hips, not to mention the potential danger of the player landing on their head.  It is just as dangerous if not more dangerous than boarding and/or head shots, both of which the league is trying to get rid of.

Here's my opinion of Sami Salo
Salo is a solid veteran defenseman.  He's a good player, decent offense, great defensively, and he play's physical.  For those that don't see much of Western Conference teams because of the late night times they play, Salo play's a lot like Nick Kronwall of the Red Wings, but he has a little more size than Kronwall.  There's no doubt that when Salo plays physical he takes full advantage of his size.  The guy plays clean though, when he hits he targets the center of the chest or shoulders, he keeps his stick down, he keeps is knee's in to avoid knee-on-knee hits, and he never targets a player's head.

Now this is my opinion of Brad Marchand:
Brad Marchand is a rat. Brad Marchand is a coward. Brad Marchand takes shots at players, runs his mouth, and hides behind some of the bigger/tougher players on the Bruins such as Milan Lucic, Shawn Thorton, and Johnny Boychuk. Over the 3 years he's been in the league I've seen him constantly run his mouth and take dirty cross checks on players and skate away from them and reject most requests to fight (when hockey players fight they usually ask each other first if they want to fight, especially when 2 fighters go against each other, it's one of the coolest occurrences in all of sports). Marchand deserves every game he's suspended for his hit on Salo.

In reaction to the suspension, the Boston Bruins (players, coaches, GM) are all taking a stance that it was in self defense why Marchand hit him. Marchand claimed that he had a meeting with the NHL disciplinary heads that said this play was legal, here's the problem, it's legal for Marchand to drop to a knee to avoid a hit.  However if he drops to a knee and makes body contact and causes a player to fall it's a penalty, usually clipping.

That's a view point from a hockey player in case you're confused why play was dirty, and why the punishment for the play was handed out.

If you're interested in the NHL's viewpoint, here's the video from Brendan Shanahan Senior Vice President of the department of Player Safety.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=60&id=148388&navid=DL|NHL|home

The Elephant in the room NHL news

Yesterday, Friday, January 6th, the NHL Players Association rejected the NHL proposed realignment.  In case of you were unaware of the NHL proposed realignment, it was passed by the NHL board of Governors this last month with 26 of the 30 teams in favor of the realignment. The proposed plan called for a restructuring of the 2 conference, 6 division format with the top 8 teams in each conference making the playoffs.  The new system calls for 4 conferences, two conferences of 8 teams and two conferences of 7 teams, the top 4 teams in each conference would make the playoffs, and then the first 2 rounds of the proposed playoffs would be in-conference, and then the 4 winners out of each conference would be reseeded and would play each other the final 2 rounds for the cup.  The benefits of the proposed system would keep teams playing in their local time zones for most of their games, for central division teams it would keep them from going to the west coast as often, it would move Winnipeg out of the eastern conference and south east division, and it would allow for flexibility in the Phoenix Coyotes sale and whether or not that team will relocate out of the desert.

The new system seems pretty good, particularly for the fans.  So why did the players union reject this plan? There are 2 main reasons.

Reason 1: With the CBA expiring in September the Player's Union is going to use this as a bargaining chip.  There probably won't be a lockout but this chip gives ammo for the players union.

Reason 2: This is the more serious reason for realignment not passing.  The player's union does not like the proposed playoff system.  The union feels that the teams in 7-team conferences in the new system will have an easier time qualifying for the playoffs where as the teams in the 8-team conferences will have a tougher time.  Personally as a fan I don't like this playoff system either.  This is the one part that the proposed realignment will have to address.

Hopefully some sort of realignment  passes because so many teams are affected by this.  Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, Dallas, Minnesota, and Winnipeg all are affected by this.