Nicklas Lidstrom:Greatest Red Wing Ever

[FireCaptain 563]

[Jusek 437]

Lidstrom's regular season and playoffs highlights:

Amazing job by awood40!

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

I always go one step further: I call Mr. Howe the greatest complete NHL player of all time.

[TheXym 2,606]

Lidstrom number two to Howe, IMHOz

Edited March 7, 2014 by TheXym

[Firefighter4WingedWheel 12]

Comparing players from different eras gets you as far as comparing Jordan to LeBron. It just doesn't work. IMO, Jordan > LeBron. I grew up watching Lidstrom so I'm partial to him. Was a very impactful night watching one of my favorite players get his jersey raised.

[Spongewingredpants 75]

statistics

Lidstrom 4 cups

Yzerman 3 cups

no cups after these guys....

[Richdg 267]

because of our ages and time, many don't fully understand just how good guys like Howe, Abel, delvecchio, Lindsey etc..... were. As much as I love The Captain, he isn't even our best all time C. Howe is regarded by just about everyone as the greatest of all time. Even Gretzky considers him so. hell the Soviet Union was always rumored to have patterned their entire hockey program on him.

This is not meant to cast Nick in a bad light or anything. He is either the best or second best Dman of all time. In some ways he gets overlooked. he was so quite and steady. Never hurt, never angry, never dirty play, just went about his business every day and did his job-which was to shut down the other teams top forward line.

[Ekmanc 586]

He will always be the greatest to me.

[Nev 1,085]

Comparison of Lids to Yzerman is probably that Lids was by far the better player, but Yzerman seemed to give more. Playing on one or no knees and probably significantly shortening a career so he could give his all. Nick in a way was the opposite: playing as good as possible for as long as possible, with very little risk in terms of longevity, and even the individual plays on the ice. Nick made the best decisions, Stevie made the right ones. Both are incomparable but I got to watch more of Lids so will always hold him in the highest esteem. But having seen how Gordie is still revered in the locker room shows he's the man to beat.

Then again, Lidstrom played in the 2009 finals with a stitched up ball-sac after emergency surgery to quite literally save his testicles.

[The Datsyukian Deke 127]

Comparing players from different eras gets you as far as comparing Jordan to LeBron. It just doesn't work. IMO, Jordan > LeBron. I grew up watching Lidstrom so I'm partial to him. Was a very impactful night watching one of my favorite players get his jersey raised.

IMO it goes even further. Not only shouldn't we compare players from different ages, it's also very hard to compare different positions. Plus, the number of titles you win depends on the teams around you and the strength of the league at that time. Therefore I don't see any reasonable way to compare players from different ages/positions.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

[Internet.Unknown 422]

I didn't see Howe play, so I cannot comment on him.

I suspect those who claim Lidstrom was the better Wing (and that's what this thread is titled--the better Wing not player) didn't see Yzerman carry this team on his back before Lidstrom arrived. Throughout the 80's, the Wings were Steve Yzerman and not much else.

Listening to Lidstrom speak last night, it's clear that he believes Steve is the greatest Wing of all time.

[Opie 308]

1.Howe

2. Yzerman IMO people tend to forget how big of a part of shedding the dead wings label he was, he was the face of the org for a very long time. But I am biased because he is my favorite player of all time!

2B. Lids

[McAwesome 754]

1.Howe

2. Yzerman IMO people tend to forget how big of a part of shedding the dead wings label he was, he was the face of the org for a very long time. But I am biased because he is my favorite player of all time!

2B. Lids

^This

The way I see it, Nick carried this team on his shoulders for the majority of his career, but Stevie lifted the team out of the depths and restored it to glory. Yzerman always has been and always be my favorite player of all-time, so I am biased in his favor, but as others have said how lucky we are that we get to have the discussion about which of our hockey royalty best represents the greatest franchise in the history of professional sports.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

Howe is regarded by just about everyone as the greatest of all time. Even Gretzky considers him so.