For conversation’s sake what did make Bourque better? Lidstrom has 15 years of dominance and has a ton of playoff success as well where he was a crucial part to those Wings Cups.
Here is a list of where Ray Bourque finished in Norris voting in every single season of his 20-year career:
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 7, 7, 7.
He finished 4th in Norris voting at age 19.
He finished 2nd in Norris voting at age 40.
He did this in the most stacked era for defenceman in NHL history. Bourque had to compete against a
prime Chelios, MacInnis, Stevens, Leetch, Langway and Coffey.
For context: When Lidstrom won his first Norris trophy at age 30, who was 2nd in voting?
A 40-year-old Ray Bourque in his final season.
When Lidstrom won his second Norris trophy the following year, who was 2nd in voting?
A 40-year-old Chris Chelios.
When Lidstrom won his third Norris trophy, who was 2nd in voting?
A 39-year-old Al MacInnis.
Lidstrom didn’t start winning Norris trophies until the old guard retired.
Bourque is 1st in goals, assists, and points for defenceman while almost being a career PPG player.
He was 0.5% of the vote away from winning the Hart trophy in 1990. He had more first and second place votes than Messier, but lost due to having fewer 3rd place votes.
He led his team to the Cup finals twice losing to the dynasty Oilers. Their game-plan was to focus on shutting him down as he was the main driver of the Bruins offense. Think about how teams game-planned around Karlsson in the 2017 playoffs. Except Bourque was also an elite defender to boot.
Bourque had the better peak, better prime and better longevity.
Most people simply didn’t get a chance to watch him, so they don’t recognize that he was the better player (although it’s definitely close).