Jeff Riger: Norris Nick?
At some point Nick Lidstrom might just want to change his first name to Norris as in Norris trophy considering he is poised to win the best defenseman award again after being nominated today with Boston's Zdeno Chara and Nashville's Shea Weber. The nomination marks Lidstrom's 11th time in the last 13 years being up for the trophy which will be announced June 22nd in Las Vegas at the NHL Awards show. Lidstrom finished the season ranking second among defenseman in scoring with 62 points, 16 goals and 46 assists in 82 games. The captain also led the Wings in ice time averaging 23:28 per game and at one point during the season had an 11 game scoring streak. Oh and did I mention that he will turn 41 on Thursday? Yeah, pretty amazing! If Lidstrom were to win the trophy again this year, it will be his 7th, meaning he will be tied with Doug Harvey who also has 7 trophies and one behind Bobby Orr who has 8 and is considered the best defenseman ever to play the game. The only downside of this season for Nick is finishing with a minus 2 rating which marks the 1st time in his 19 year career that he finished in the minus department of the plus minus rating. Lidstrom did acknowledge that he was not happy about being a minus player and that the stat could keep him from the winning the Norris again this season. Chara finished the year a plus 33 while Weber was a plus 7, however both those defenseman did not come close to Lidstrom's 62 points, Chara had 44 while Weber had 48.
Watch the Lidstrom, Mike Babcock and Henrik Zetterberg videos below for the entire Norris Trophy story plus find out what the Wings are saying about who they want to play in the 2nd round of the postseason.
