Best defensive corps 80s and onwards?

[Michael Scofield]

Which team had the best defense year after year, 1980-present? 1989 Flames, mid 90s Red Wings maybe?

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[shadow1]

Detroit and New Jersey for numerous years each.

 

[Trottier]

Isles dynasty D corp was deep and sometimes overlooked, IMO.

 

[jkrx]

Yes, Isles had amongst the best. I would say the best because of the era and the fact that the team could still produce good but not great offense.

Also mid 80s to early 90s habs a great defense.

I think Red Wings must have the best offense/defense ratio. Pretty much being in top5 of both for several years.

Early 90 chicago was probably the strongest team defensively together with the Canadiens.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

For an extended period of time, it has to be the 90s-00s NJ Devils, though the 80s Islanders were no slouches either.

This is the defense the Devils iced in the 2000 playoffs:

Scott Stevens - Brian Rafalski
Ken Daneyko - Scott Niedermayer
Colin White - Vladimir Malahkov.

The 90s Red Wings were probably about equal to the Devils for the brief period of time that Konstantinov was a healthy superstar:

Nicklas Lidstrom - Larry Murphy
Slava Fetisov - Vladimir Konstantinov
(I forget the bottom pair)

Bigger names than NJ, but really only Konstantinov was in his prime when they all played together.

 

[FASTHANDS*]

Yes, Isles had amongst the best. I would say the best because of the era and the fact that the team could still produce good but not great offense.

Also mid 80s to early 90s habs a great defense.

I think Red Wings must have the best offense/defense ratio. Pretty much being in top5 of both for several years.

Early 90 chicago was probably the strongest team defensively together with the Canadiens.

1982 Islanders among the great offensives ever, 385 goals, 4.8 goals a game in 1982. Plus they could shut down any great offensive team. Imo, a tremendoulsy overlooked dynasty that could match up great with all the NHL dynasties.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

the 2000 finals pitted two of the deepest, most solid d-corps of the last 25 years against each other. dallas had hatcher, zubov, matvichuk, sydor, plus sylvain cote and dave manson. new jersey had stevens, niedermayer, daneyko, rafalski, white, and vladimir malakhov. but both teams also had what i call great defensive "cultures." the common thread was that both organizations brought in tons of guys from the 70s/80s habs: dallas had gainey as GM, doug jarvis as an assistant coach, and carbonneau, ludwig, skrudland, and mike keane on their roster. by that point, new jersey only had robinson as head coach and claude lemieux on the roster, but they have at other points during the great defensive era from when stevens got there to when niedermayer left had: lemaire as coach and laperriere as an assistant.

almost undoubtedly, the best defensive "culture" of the past fifteen years has been new jersey in that ten year stretch. they had their great d-corps of stevens, daneyko, niedermayer, fetisov and kasotonov early on, rafalski and white in the later years, but they had great checking forwards: holik, madden and later pando, carpenter was a good checker for them early on. they brought back fetisov and carpenter as assistants at some points too.

but i think, if we're counting from the 80s to the present, montreal in the 80s had the best defensive culture, if not always the best d-corps. it was just a culture of being defensively responsible, with gainey teaching carbonneau and skrudland, robinson teaching chelios, rick green teaching ludwig. dallas and new jersey had their homegrown defensive stalwarts, but so much came from the ex-habs passing on this culture: is matvichuk matvichuk without ludwig? hell, is scott stevens scott stevens without lemaire? looking at hitchcock's kamloops teams, it doesn't look like he was a big defensive guy until he joined the stars organization with their IHL team in kalamazoo and was handed the mandate by gainey.

the other great defensive team of the last 15 years, detroit, has also consistently brought in veteran defensemen (not necessarily defensive) with long playoff resumes to mentor their guys: mark howe, brad mccrimmon, paul coffey, mike ramsey, fetisov, larry murphy, jamie macoun, chelios, rafalski. and of course, the influence of another great ex-hab, scotty bowman, on yzerman, draper and maltby, datsyuk, even fedorov, is immeasurable.

 

[Rhiessan71]

Hawk's in the early-mid 90's or Calgary in the late 80's weren't too shabby either.

 

[jkrx]

For an extended period of time, it has to be the 90s-00s NJ Devils, though the 80s Islanders were no slouches either.

This is the defense the Devils iced in the 2000 playoffs:

Scott Stevens - Brian Rafalski
Ken Daneyko - Scott Niedermayer
Colin White - Vladimir Malahkov.

The 90s Red Wings were probably about equal to the Devils for the brief period of time that Konstantinov was a healthy superstar:

Nicklas Lidstrom - Larry Murphy
Slava Fetisov - Vladimir Konstantinov
(I forget the bottom pair)

Bigger names than NJ, but really only Konstantinov was in his prime when they all played together.

Bob Rouse - Aaron Ward/Dandenault, but Konstantinov never played with Larry Murphy except for the 97 playoffs.

1982 Islanders among the great offensives ever, 385 goals, 4.8 goals a game in 1982. Plus they could shut down any great offensive team. Imo, a tremendoulsy overlooked dynasty that could match up great with all the NHL dynasties.

You are right. The 82 Isles was a force in both ends but overall during their dynasty their defensive game was much better than their offensive.

 

[Hardyvan123]

Mid 80's flames had 3 excellent D men and a decent supporting cast, although Reinhart's injury woes diminished this group a bit.

Lately the Red wings and Black Hawks have had very good D corps in a Cap era, so dynasties are going to be harder to come by but the hawks current gang of 4 is comparable to any group since the start of the 80's

Keith, Campbell, Seabrooke and a very steady and underrated Hjalmarsson match up with any core of 4 since 1980.

Detroit has probably had the best overall groupings of the last 30 years, largely in part to Lidstrom ( a top 20 guy all time when it's all said and done, maybe even top 10)

 

[MXD]

80ies Habs were a terrific group. When healthy....

Robinson - Svoboda
Chelios - Ludwig
Green - Whoever

Just great.

 

[Steve Kournianos]

1989 Flames

Didnt even do it with Suter in the playoffs. And to think they traded Reinhart for Ramage (who was still good but I'd take Reinhart)

 

[saskganesh]

1989 Flames

Didnt even do it with Suter in the playoffs. And to think they traded Reinhart for Ramage (who was still good but I'd take Reinhart)

they traded Brett Hull for Ramage. that team was so deep, it was a move they could afford to make. and they won a cup.

Reinhardt was traded to the Canucks for a third rounder. he had back problems, and while he was still brilliant, his career was soon over.

but in broad strokes , you are right. Ramage replaced Reinhardt and it cost them Hull.

 

[saskganesh]

anyhow, I'll go with Islanders for 10$ Alex.

 

[Malefic74]

80ies Habs were a terrific group. When healthy....

Robinson - Svoboda
Chelios - Ludwig
Green - Whoever

Just great.

Whoever = Gaston Gingras/Tom Kurvers

 

[begbeee]

What about Flyers in ´87 or Bruins around 89-91...??

 

[Turboflex*]

80ies Habs were a terrific group. When healthy....

Robinson - Svoboda
Chelios - Ludwig
Green - Whoever

Just great.

For 89-90 season you lose Robinson but add young Schneider & Desjardins. Throughout this period they were top 5 in league in goals against, often #1 or #2.

 

[kingdok]

Caps 91-94

K. Hatcher - S. Côté
A. Iafrate - C. Johansson

Incredible top 4. The best I've seen.

then you add your choice of Langway, Lalor, Slaney, Cavallini, Anderson, Woolley, Reekie, etc...

 

[Dissonance]

The Flyers during the Howe-McCrimmon years (1983-1987) were incredibly good defensively, finishing 3rd, 6th, 3rd, 1st, and 2nd in goals against. That was a ridiculous top pairing, probably the best in the league during that period.

 

[MXD]

Whoever = Gaston Gingras/Tom Kurvers

Or Mike Lalor. Lalor was the 6th man in 86, IIRC.

 

[Malefic74]

Or Mike Lalor. Lalor was the 6th man in 86, IIRC.

You could be right, Gingras was definitely there for the end of the season and the playoff run. Wasn't great defensively, but he could run a power play and ye gods, could he ever shoot the puck.