Brynäs IF

Former Red Wings captain/defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom retired this summer after 20 years in the league. What is the league going to be like without him?

"You can’t replace him. There’s no chance with what he did. He’s going to go down as one of the best ever. I think if you ask anyone, he’s so respected. He could have kept playing. That’s the scary part. It’s not like this guy was really struggling. He retired on his own terms. He did what was best for him. For his age, it was incredible for what he was still doing. If we had to start camp in a couple weeks, I’m sure he’d find a way to look good out there."

Säger en del om det Lidström uträttat i sin karriär...

Huge: ja, där har vi en som har et ganska mäktigt lifetime achievment, å då har han halva livet kvar att leva...

To be continued...

Ooops!!!
Glömde sista delen av intervjun:

As a captain, was he more of a vocal Mark Messier type or more of a quiet Mario Lemieux type?

"I think he’s more of a quiet leader. You don’t see much emotion. He was pretty steady. Pretty even-keel as far as his demeanor. There’s a lot of ways to display leadership and I think he’s got every quality of a great captain. I think he’s a role model for a lot of players. I even took a lot of things away from when we lost (to the Red Wings in the 2008 Stanley Cup Final), I think we all learned about the demeanor. The year we won, you could see our demeanor was a little different."

What was the toughest thing about playing against him?

"The nice thing was he wasn’t going to crush you. You didn’t have to worry about him. He didn’t look for you in the middle too often. He conserved his energy that way. He was so positionally sound. The one thing that always sticks out to me that I always laugh about,  was seeing guys try to chip pucks in. A skilled defenseman like that, you think I just put the puck behind him and maybe get a few hits on him and wear him down. I saw guys try to chip pucks behind him and he’d bat them out of the air. When you’re going against a guy who is so good one on one, you’d think that’s the only way to beat him. And you’d see guys try to chip it in and they still couldn’t beat him. He was so good positionally. You’d look up and he’d be half a zone away. Then you’d put your head down and all of a sudden he’d be in your face. He just knew the game so well. He was positionally sound and knew the game so well."