Pavels Dog
Registered User
I'd disagree and say anyone who doesn't say Lidstrom here simply did not watch Lidstrom enough.I hate to put it like this but anyone who thinks Lidstrom was actually a better hockey player than Forsberg is simply wrong.
I absolutely love Forsberg and consider him one of the most talented of all time. But Lidstrom wasn't just consistent, he was consistent as one of the absolute best in the league.
Eh, Lidstrom played for 20 years and he had tons of amazing d-men to compete with for trophies. Pronger, Niedermayer, Bourqe, Chara etc. Competition was tougher for most of Lidstrom's career than it's been in the last 5 years or so (when simply putting up a lot of points has been enough to win considering how poor the best defensive Ds have been offensively).Peter Forsberg, nobody touches his peak. I think Lidstrom had a bit of luck winning all those trophies during an era where the competition wasn't all that strong. Chara sure, but Phaneuf, Zubov and others were top three for some of those years.
Bit surprising that Pronger doesn't have a stronger Norris trophy record though. He really was incredible. Maybe he was more of a playoff beast.
Karlsson will enter this discussion soon.
On top of that, it probably took the league a bit too long to actually take notice to him and start giving him attention due to his quiet nature and the fact that he wasn't flashy or physical. 7 Norrises could have been 9 or 10 and it wouldn't have been crazy at all.