The Habs had a lethal power play as you probably already know, and Harvey was a big part of it:
https://www.hhof.com/htmlSpotlight/spot_oneononep197301.shtml
To me, the interesting point about this well done breakdown of stats for this era's top defenders is that Lidstrom has been put through a ringer and criticized harshly and at great length by some here for having so much offensive production come from the PP. Meanwhile, it appears Harvey was in the exact same boat.
Over Lidstrom's whole career we're looking at 45% of his points were ES, 52% PP, and 4% SH. He become even more reliant on the PP in his last few seasons.
Through these prime years for Harvey he's at 49% ES, 50% PP, and 1% SH.
These two great defenders are too similar to criticize one and not the other.
Well first off, it's very clear that Dmen scoring, especially goal scoring was much lower back then.
Once one accounts for the major discouragement of Dmen rushing the puck and prior to adding the Slapshot as a tool for them, one should be able to figure that out for ones self.
Not to mention facing the VERY BEST forwards, Dmen and goalies much, much more often than Lidstrom ever did.
Once again, looking at that chart, it's pretty clear that Kelly is the only one that scored a higher amount of ES points and even then, it's questionable how many of them were as a Dman and not a forward.
As for Lidstrom, he is "put through the ringer" on his ES production because it's clearly much lower than other top offensive Dmen of his time, playing in the same environment.
Going through Lidstrom's breakdowns over the years has left me with 2 main conclusions.
1) That I underestimated Lidstrom's PP QB abilities at first. I thought that they were slightly inferior to Bourque's and Leetch's but have since come to realise that he was in fact about equal in that regard.
2) That Lidstrom's ES production was actually lower than I assumed it was, much lower in fact. At least a level below, maybe even 2 below Bourque, Leetch and now Karlsson in this regard. About on par with Chara for the entire second half of his career says it all.
In 20 seasons, Lidstrom only had 30+ ES points in a season 3 times and had exactly 30 twice. Peaking at 37.
By comparison, Bourque had 30+ 16 times, 40+ 8 times and 50+ twice. Peaking at 59.
And before all the talk about Bourque playing half of his career in a higher scoring time...
Leetch who started just 3 years before Lidstrom, played 4 less full seasons and missed more time during those 16 seasons than Lidstrom STILL managed 30+ 6 times, 40+ 3 times and 50+ once. Peaking at 55.
Then of course we have Karlsson in just his 7th season, who also missed most of one of those seasons, already has 30+ 4 times (one at exactly 40), 40+ twice and 50+ once. Peaking at 55 this past season.
Coffey of course...30+ 13 times, 40+ 8 times, 50+ 6 times, 70+ 3 times and 90+ once. Peaking at a ridiculous 92 ES points.
Potvin, in only 15 seasons, 30+ 9 times, 40+ 4 times (50 on the nose twice), 50+ twice. Peaking at 54.
And finally one who doesn't get enough recognition for just how freaking good he really was...Mark Howe. 30+ 6 times, 40+ twice and 50+ once. Peaking at 54.
Considering that Detroit was one of the top and usually the top ESG producing team for more than a decade...please explain to me how Lidstrom deserves to be included in this list?
Time for that famous HF saying me thinks...ready for it?
And it's not even close.
Lidstrom is quite simply not in that class and is much more in line with MacInnis, Chelios and as shown before, Chara, for ES production.
MacInnis, 30+ 4 times, 40+ once. Peaking at 43.
Chelios, 30+ 3 times. Peaking at 35 twice.
Harvey, quite obviously, did not have that kind of disparity amongst his peers.
Now that that is more than just slightly cleared up, we can all return to your regularly scheduled program of attacking Harvey's peers and competition despite the FACT that he faced the very best of those peers and competition on the actual ice many more times a season than Lidstrom did his.
Thanks for watching.
