The Hockey News Oct. 5, 2020 - Fall SIP

ONE OF OUR STAFF members said recently he was rewatching the classic TV series The Wire. In addition to enjoying its brilliance, he said that he learned things he didn’t notice on first viewing. It’s not a unique experience. Most of us will reread our favorite books, watch shows and movies multiple times, listen to the same songs repeatedly. We like what we like, the familiarity breeds comfort, and occasionally we unearth an enriching nugget or two. I encountered that feeling while doing the research for the Top 100 Defensemen of All-Time. I geek out on projects of this nature. I build spreadsheets, devise formulas for comparables and trawl the archives to learn what contemporaries had to say. It’s a labor of love that I take seriously. This time, I was particularly…

THE DAY IN 2018 we published The Top 100 Goalies of All-Time is also the day we planted the seed for The Top 100 Defensemen of All-Time. Goalies and blueliners take care of business on the homefront, which is the No. 1 ingredient for winning hockey in the playoffs. While the debate is open for the best goalie of all-time – our panel picked Terry Sawchuk, but four others made it a close race – it’s a near-unanimous decision in selecting the top defenseman. Bobby Orr is the man. I say near-unanimous because one of our panel members thought Nicklas Lidstrom did enough in the final years of his career to come out on top, ahead of Orr. Here’s how the voting process worked: our 10-member voting committee consisted of The Hockey…

BORN: March 20, 1948, Parry Sound, Ont. NHL CAREER: 1966-1978 TEAMS: Bos, Chi STATS: GP 657 G 270 A 645 P 915 PIM 953 ALL-STAR: 9 (First-8, Second-1) TROPHIES: 17 (Hart-3, Norris-8, Ross-2, Smythe-2, Pearson-1, Calder-1) STANLEY CUPS: 2 HHOF: 1979 THE GREATEST defenseman of all-time. In some corners, the greatest player of all-time, full stop. The legend and the mystique that surrounds Bobby Orr may sound fantastical, if not for the fact so many people are still alive today who bore witness to his on-ice excellence. The town he was born and raised in – Parry Sound, Ont. – is synonymous with his name and his name alone. When the Boston Bruins are mentioned in conversation, he’s the first player that comes to mind: No. 4, Bobby Orr. Quiet and humble off the ice, dominating and dazzling as…

BORN: Dec. 19, 1924, Montreal, Que. NHL CAREER: 1947-1969 TEAMS: Mtl, NYR, Det, StL STATS: GP 1,113 G 88 A 452 P 540 PIM 1,216 ALL-STAR: 11 (First-10, Second-1) TROPHIES: 7 (Norris-7) STANLEY CUPS: 6 HHOF: 1973 AS A JUNIOR coach in the Montreal Canadiens’ organization, Scotty Bowman had the privilege of admiring Doug Harvey in his prime from a distance. But it wasn’t until Bowman got an NHL bench of his own that he came to fully appreciate Harvey’s sublime brilliance, long after one of the greatest defensemen in the history of the game was challenging the strength of his mantle with Stanley Cups and Norris Trophies. In his first season as an NHL coach with the expansion St. Louis Blues, Bowman found himself short of healthy bodies for Game 7 of the first round of the 1967-68…

BORN: April 28, 1970, Vasteras, Swe. NHL CAREER: 1991-2012 TEAMS: Det STATS: GP 1,564 G 264 A 878 P 1,142 PIM 514 TROPHIES: 8 (Norris-7, Smythe-1) ALL-STAR: 12 (First-10, Second-2) STANLEY CUPS: 4 HHOF: 2015 WHEN NICKLAS Lidstrom hung up his skates after two decades as the best NHL defenseman of his generation, the competitive juices still pumped through his veins. He sought out another avenue to keep his body in motion and his mind sharp. Lidstrom joined forces with two other famous Swedish athletes – retired tennis star Stefan Edberg and PGA Tour golfer Henrik Stenson – as partners in the Stockholm-based asset management company Case. “Nicklas is one of our country’s most acclaimed sports stars and has a strong brand,” said Edberg, explaining why including Lidstrom into their partnership in 2015 made perfect sense. “Add to that,…

BORN: Nov. 25, 1902, Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask. NHL CAREER: 1926-1940 TEAMS: Bos, NYA STATS: GP 550 G 105 A 179 P 284 PIM 1,047 ALL-STAR: 8 (First-7, Second-1) TROPHIES: 4 (Hart-4) STANLEY CUPS: 2 HHOF: 1947 WITH EVERY passing year, Eddie Shore’s legacy becomes a little more mysterious, a little more apocryphal. Born in Saskatchewan and raised on a ranch where he hauled hay and delighted in breaking in horses, he was one of the best defensemen ever to play the game and harder than a coffin nail. And like a Paul Bunyan for the hockey crowd, tales of Shore’s legendary competitiveness and old-schoolery become all the more fun to tell. Perhaps the best such story was relayed in The Hockey News by Stan Fischler. It all starts on a January evening in Boston, back in 1929. Shore was…