Inside the NHL
Lidstrom can be forgiven for one bad night
Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland is the best in the business, so listening to him talk about hockey usually makes for a wise decision. The beauty in defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, he says, isn't found in his trophy case, or when the world is watching, but how he carries himself on a daily basis.
"He's humble, and he practices every day like he plays," Holland said last week. "His greatness is in his attention to detail shift to shift, game to game, night to night. He doesn't "wow' you, but when you watch our team day after day like I do, he "wows' in that he rarely makes a mistake and rarely has a bad night."
Let's hope Sabres fans recognized the rarity Tuesday, when several mistakes from Lidstrom turned into a miserable night. It was easy to overlook from a Buffalo perspective given what the scoreboard showed in HSBC Arena — Sabres 6, Red Wings 2 — but "wow" did the 18-year veteran suddenly look human.
Lidstrom was on the ice for three goals against, including one that bounced off his skate and was credited to Thomas Vanek. He had a game-high four giveaways and one shot on goal over 23 minutes that will be written off as a forgettable game in October. Of course, when you play more than 1,300 NHL games, it's bound to happen.
Not to worry, St. Nick bounced back the next game and recorded two assists in a 5-2 victory over the Kings, giving him 1,000 points in his career. He skated into the weekend with 269 goals and 771 assists, placing him eighth among all-time defensemen in points with Brian Leetch and Denis Potvin within reach this season.
"It feels great," Lidstrom told reporters after the game. "It's something I'm very proud of, too, to reach that milestone with the other players in there with 1,000 points, especially the defensemen that's in there."
Always classy and almost always great, the 39-year-old has been the same since he arrived from Sweden in 1991-92. He plays with so little flair and so much consistency that his own teammates believe he's actually underrated.
"Definitely," winger Henrik Zetterberg said. "I didn't realize how good he was until I started playing with him either, and I'm a Swede. I should know. To me, he's the best, night in and night out for us. It's just awesome to be able to play with him."
Lidstrom joined Ray Bourque (1,579), Paul Coffey (1,531), Al MacInnis (1,274), Phil Housley (1,232), Larry Murphy (1,216), Potvin (1,052) and Leetch (1,026) among defensemen in career points. Housley is the only one not inducted into the Hall. Lidstrom, the first European captain to hoist the Stanley Cup, is a lock.
He has won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman six times and finished second for three others. He won a Conn Smythe in 2002, an Olympic gold medal in 2008 and has played in 10 All-Star games. He also has a career plus-minus ratio of plus-412 and has never finished on the wrong side of that ledger in any season.
Lock him up in the Hall of Fame and throw away the key.
"Bobby Orr is probably the greatest defenseman in the history of the game," Holland said. "I think you can make the case that Nick is on the list for No. 2."
The Wings have reached the playoffs 18 straight seasons (once without Lidstrom), the longest current streak in professional sports. For every one of his first 17 seasons, they finished among the top four in the conference. It includes nine straight 100-point seasons, eight straight division titles and eight conference finals appearances in 14 seasons.
Oh, and they won four Cups.
"It's been fun to be a part of it," Lidstrom said during his stop in Buffalo. "When you look back, it doesn't seem that long ago when we won our first Cup back in 1997, but that was 12 years ago. I'm still playing against the top players in the world every night."
Funny, but that's what they say about him.
Hawks cut their costs
The Blackhawks, nudged against the salary cap, had third-line winger Jack Skille commuting between Chicago and their affiliate in Rockford for five consecutive days in an effort to save space. He was practicing with the AHL Wolves, driving an hour and playing with the NHL Hawks.
"I just turn up the tunes and drive," Skille said.
Skille already would have a permanent spot in the AHL if not for his contract. The former first-round pick was given the rookie maximum salary of $850,000 when he signed three years ago. Last season, the Hawks summoned Kris Versteeg for help because he was only making $490,000.
Versteeg wound up scoring 22 goals and 53 points and was a finalist for rookie of the year, which led to him signing a three-year deal worth $9.25 million. Skille isn't going to pocket anywhere near that much unless he has a big year. That's unlikely given his checking role on a team loaded with scorers.
It's a lesson for prospects and agents. In the salary-cap era, it could be better to accept less money on an NHL deal just to get a skate in the door. Bigger bucks will be there later if they capitalize on the opportunity.
Battle in Columbus
Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock and GM Scott Howson appear to be headed for a power struggle over rookie winger Nikita Filatov, whose ice time was chopped in three straight games before he was bumped to the press box.
The Jackets were gushing over Filatov during training camp but Hitchcock has not been impressed with his defense. Howson made it clear the kid isn't going anywhere, namely AHL Syracuse. It was a message to Hitchcock that kid will stay, and the kid will play.
"[Hitchcock] keeps saying, "We don't want you to be the kind of player [Nikolai] Zherdev was. He's never going to be competing on the puck, he's never going to be going into battle and all that stuff," Filatov said. "But I don't think I'm a player like Zherdev."
Kessel recovering
Phil Kessel had his first practice with the Leafs last week, but don't look for the former Bruins winger to bail out his new team any time soon. Kessel isn't expected back for another month after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Then again, one player can't save the Leafs from their brutal start. Toronto had not scored the first goal in any of its six games and trailed by two goals in five straight going into the weekend. The Leafs also were without No.‚1 goalie Vesa Toskala and backup Jonas Gustavsson, aka "The Monster," with injuries.
Coach Ron Wilson is battling with the media, a sign he's feeling the heat in the Center of the Hockey Universe. He stormed out of a news conference three words into the first question after a 7-2 loss to the Rangers.
For now, which means this minute, GM Brian Burke is sticking with his coach and his roster. He has a long relationship with Wilson, so don't look for changes there. Burke has been fielding calls about players, but he suggested most GMs are looking to rob him.
"The ones that are calling, it's not a helpful group," Burke said. "I haven't got anything but anchors thrown at me."
Hedman starts strong
Early returns on 6-foot-6, 220-pound defenseman Victor Hedman, the second pick overall in June and hailed as the next Chris Pronger, have been nothing but positive.
Hedman, 18, had four assists in his first six games, leaving him one point behind first pick overall John Tavares in points out of the gate. He was playing 24:52 per night, which led the Lightning and led all rookies by nearly 3½ minutes a game.
"You have to stay guarded because you know it's going to be bumpy, but it's very encouraging," Bolts associate coach Rick Wilson said. "A big, strong kid. He's played in a men's league a couple of years [in Sweden], and I think that's showing itself. He's just not nervous with the competition."
Quotable
Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, on the NHL: "What I don't like about the NHL is the business approach of sports. I've tried to explain to Gary Bettman many, many times. Sport has to be sport first and then a business. They have a different approach. For them it's the business, then maybe the sport."
Quotable II
Wings coach Mike Babcock on the Sabres' team defense: "If you are going to give [Ryan] Miller 22 shots all year long, he will be the best goalie in the league."
Around the boards
• Chris Chelios, intent on leaving the game horizontally, signed a 25-game contract with the AHL Wolves. The 47-year-old (that's a '62 in youth hockey circles) played his first game last week. "I'm playing because I love playing," he said. "I've always said to myself when I was ready to be done, I would know there was nothing left."
• The Senators are having second thoughts about keeping 19-year-old Swede Erik Karlsson in the NHL for a full season. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound defenseman is talented but was overmatched in his first six games.
• Columbus is without Jan Hejda for four to six weeks after he bumped knees with ex-Jacket forward Curtis Glencross, now with the Flames. Hejda was tied for the league lead with a plus-8. Since the start of the 2007-08 season, Hejda's was plus-51. Only Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk (plus-73) and Chicago's Duncan Keith (plus-64) were better.
• Pittsburgh's 6-1-0 start going into the weekend marks its best since lockout-shortened 1994-95, when the Pens started 7-0. The defending champs were 5-0 on the road for the first time in history.
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