ESH
Registered User
- Jun 19, 2011
- 5,304
- 3,413
Nicklas Lidstrom is my favourite player of all time and also (probably) the best defensive player I've ever seen play. I never got to see Konstantinov play so I just wanted some input into how good he actually was. From 1995-1997 Konstantinov was 2nd and 4th in Norris voting and 4th and 5th in All-Star voting, while Lidstrom was 6th in both Norris and AS voting both years. Obviously Lidstrom was providing much better offense at the time, so was Konstantinov's defense really that much better to be considered the better player back then? I know Konstantinov was known as a physical force, which I'm sure was a hot commodity around that time.
I'm particularly interested to know about the 1997 playoffs. Who do you think was better/more valuable during that run? I'm pretty sure I've heard that Bowman decided to use the Lidstrom-Murphy pair to match up against the Legion of Doom rather than Fetisov-Konstantinov.
Also, what about pre-1995? They both started in Detroit the same year. I see that Lidstrom picked up trace amounts of awards voting in a couple years, but nothing really noteworthy. Who was considered the better player their first few years?
I'm particularly interested to know about the 1997 playoffs. Who do you think was better/more valuable during that run? I'm pretty sure I've heard that Bowman decided to use the Lidstrom-Murphy pair to match up against the Legion of Doom rather than Fetisov-Konstantinov.
Also, what about pre-1995? They both started in Detroit the same year. I see that Lidstrom picked up trace amounts of awards voting in a couple years, but nothing really noteworthy. Who was considered the better player their first few years?