The Best of the NHL Decade in Review: Part 1

Sports Illustrated started a feature this week whereby they collected the best and the worst of the past decade for every sport. Well, I thought it was going to be every sport at least. They started off with football and baseball, which makes sense, they are the two most popular, and then went straight to pop culture....which isn't even a sport. So they skipped over basketball and hockey, which means that I get to completely rip-off the idea for the NHL. That's how copyright works right?

I'll clarify that I mean the decade as being from the 1999-2000 season through the 2008-2009 season. This, unfortunately for them, disqualifies players like Mario Lemieux and Peter Forsberg that were clearly some of the best players of their generation. Mario only played 170 games and Forsberg only played 440. Sorry guys, no one is disputing your place in the hockey pantheon, but in this discussion, you have to take a back seat. And so, without further delay, I give you my Best of the NHL Decade in Review:



Player of the Decade:Nicklas Lidstrom.
Runners-up: Martin Brodeur, Jaromir Jagr

This proved to be a most difficult choice indeed. For me, it really came down to three players: Jaromir Jagr, Martin Brodeur and Nicklas Lidstrom. Jagr is unquestionably the best forward of the decade, racking up 864 points in 692 games. Even more impressive is to consider how much damage he did before the lockout, when you were basically allowed to cut an opponent's arms off without being penalized. His 1999-00 and 2000-01 seasons are just outrageous. Some called him a floater later in his career, but you just cannot argue with the numbers. Jaromir Jagr flat out dominated.

Brodeur's case will always be hampered by the fact that some of those Devils teams he played on were impenetrable black holes on defense. Like it or not, hockey is a team game and Brodeur benefited from having very good teammates. Does this diminish everything he's accomplished? Not at all. He still had to play very well to achieve what he did, I just think you could have probably swapped him with Luongo or Roy, or maybe even an Ed Belfour-type goalie and gotten almost identical results. So, sorry Marty, but this is my list and your all-time wins record just don't cut it here.

Nicklas Lidstrom wins my fantastic fictional prize because he was unquestionably the best defenseman of the decade. Consistently excellent, he only had one down year in 2003-2004 when he mysteriously only scored 38 points, but was otherwise beyond comparison. He quarterbacked the powerplay AND the penalty kill on some of the best teams of the decade. He won the Norris 6 (!!!!) times and the Conn Smythe once. He's also generally regarded as one of the classiest players in the game. It was close, but it's got to be Lidstrom.



Best Franchise of the Decade: Detroit Red Wings
Runner-up: New Jersey Devils

This, again, was a very hard choice, though only between two real contenders. Both the New Jersey Devils and the Detroit Red Wings can make very strong cases for having been the franchises of the decade. Now, I think it's no coincidence that the two finalists were, and still are, lead by two of the finalists for the prestigious No Heart Ball Player of the Decade Award.

Really, there's no other franchise that can match the consistently excellent teams that these two put on the ice for all of those years. Both won two Stanley Cups and lost once in the finals. Both had highly publicized flame outs in the first round of the playoffs. But, to me, one of the true marks of their continued excellence is their outstanding regular season records: both teams made the playoffs every year in the decade. In fact, neither missed the playoffs during the span.

In the end, I decided to go with the Wings because they had more truly outstanding seasons. While New Jersey averaged an impressive 103 points per season during their run, the Red Wings rang up 113. Let's go over that number slowly. Over the entire 2000's, the Detroit Red Wings averaged 113 points a season. They averaged 50 wins, 19 losses and 13 ties. That, my friends, hurts my head to think about.



Best Canadian Franchise of the Decade: Ottawa Senators
Runners-up: Everyone else is remarkably similar

This being a (mostly) Canadian sports site, with a (mostly) Canadian audience, I figured this should be addressed. Now, as a Sens fan, I suspect I will catch some grief over this. Believe me, I wouldn't make this argument if it wasn't completely air-tight. Obviously everyone, and twice from those pesky Leafs fans, would point to Ottawa's "disappointing" playoffs record. Well, friends, Ottawa actually has the best playoff record of the lot. Shocking, I know. Let's break it down:

Ottawa: 8 playoff appearances, 7 series won, 8 series lost, 1 Finals appearance, 1 Conference Finals appearance
Calgary Flames: 5 playoff appearances, 3 series won, 5 series lost, 1 Finals appearance
Edmonton Oilers: 5 playoff appearances, 3 series won, 5 series lost, 1 Finals appearance (Weird coincidence!)
Toronto Maple Leafs: 5 playoff appearances, 5 series won, 5 series lost, 1 Conferences Finals appearance
Montreal Canadiens: 5 playoff appearances, 3 series won, 5 series lost
Vancouver Canucks: 6 playoff appearances, 3 series won, 6 series lost

The regular season number speak for themselves, so I won't even bother with those. If those Sens are playoff chokers, then we have a goddamn epidemic of choking amongst our Canadian hockey teams.

The second part of this piece, featuring my selections for the All-Decade team, will be posted sometime in the next couple of days. I am choosing four forward lines, three defense pairings and two goalies. Post your teams in the comments section and we'll do a comparison when mine goes up.


NB