And yet he didnt win, and Lidstrom had a very strong argument for winning. You want to talk about voting systems thats fine, but Weber actually had the third most first place votes behind Lidstrom and Chara. Weber barely played the most minutes on his team and had a partner arguably as good as he was, Nashville fans will tell you Suter was just as good a lot of the time. I have a feeling you would've voted for Blake in 98 as well if you vote for Weber in 2011. He was a flashy, big slapshot, big hit, big fight type of player (who was still very good and had a very similar season to Lidstrom) that gets overrated by his flashiness. There was no bias working against a Canadian Olympian who plays that style. If not Lidstrom, I would've given that Norris to Chara myself but Lidstrom was deserving. Neither of those guys had a defensive partner that allowed them the freedom to play a style like Weber. Webers defensive play does not make up for the 14 point advantage Lidstrom had on him, without a partner of Suters calibre. In fact, most of Webers career hes argubaly not been the best defender on his pairing, as soon as he went to the Habs and had to be the stand alone number one guy, he hasnt looked good except for a hot start when he first got there. Obviously age is a factor in that but I think his partners helped him more than people like to admit
In 98 there was 100% bias against a European who played a style that nicknamed him ****less Lidstrom. The fact that the voting was a blowout for Blake shows it. Everyone and their dog knows Lidstrom was better defensively than Blake AND he outscored him. 12 more first place votes for Blake came from him hitting and fighting.