That's comical. Like comparing Lidstrom to Karlsson, Lidstrom to Bourque are very different styles of players. And Bourque's defensive ability is very underrated because he was so good on offense. But people forget the guy was 5-11 but well over 200 lbs, built like brick house. Had that low center of gravity and could muscle most guys off the puck.
But as far as individual greatness comparisons go, Bourque is on par with or perhaps even exceeds Lidstrom. This is an interesting article on how great Bourque was, how he was overshadowed a bit playing his prime in the same era as Gretzky/Lemieux/Messier.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/goes-brown-nhl-awards-look-like-using-mlb-model/
"While running through the research for this piece, one name showed up more than any other. It’s a guy who already has plenty of hardware from a legendary career. But if he’d played in a world where the NHL split its awards by conference, he’d have a whole lot more. So let’s talk about Ray Bourque.
In the real world, Bourque won the Norris Trophy five times between 1987 and 1994. That was an impressive run, one that slots him behind only Orr, Lidstrom and Doug Harvey on the all-time list. But split the trophy by conference, and Bourque jumps to the top of the leaderboard by adding an astounding six more Norris Trophies. He wins the Prince of Wales
version in 1982, 1985 and 1993, then adds Eastern Conference honors in 1995, 1996 and 1999. (
He nearly wins the Western Conference version in 2001 too, but finishes second to Lidstrom.) That makes it a ridiculous 11 times that Norris voters thought Ray Bourque was the best defenceman in his conference.
But it gets even better for Bourque, because in our alternate universe, voters eventually get bored of handing them the Norris and start voting him for the Hart Trophy too.
He’d have been the Eastern MVP in 1987, 1990 and 1991.
Mix in the real-world Calder that he picked up in 1980, and Bourque winds up with 15 different individual awards over the course of his career, making him just about the most decorated athlete in pro sports history.
So maybe now we finally know why the NHL never adopted the MLB model. It just wouldn’t have been fair to the guy who had to build Ray Bourque’s trophy case."
Think about that for a second. Bourque would of been the best D-man in his conference in 1982 (at age 21), and the 2nd best in his conference almost 20 years later in his final 2001 season (2nd only to a 30-year old Lidstrom).
He was flat out robbed of a Hart Trophy in 1990 (losing to Messier by a just 2 votes, 227 to 225).
Doesn't even mention his record 1st/2nd team all-star nominations.
Just an unbelievable level of consistently excellent performance over a 20+ year span that we may never see again from a D-man. While he wasn't the best D-man on the planet for his entire 20+ year career, how many guys can honestly say they were among the Top 5 D-men in the game from their very first game until their very last? Other than Orr (and his 9 seasons), none that I can think of.
and, no...that isn't the same logic.
