Bourque or Lidstrom

I was in an argument in some thread on here about a few guys saying Lidstrom is hands down the best defenseman ever, next to bobby orr..........i was like you have to be kidding. he's NOT better then Bourque was.

some said on offense maybe but not all around.........all around??? Bourque was great on both offense AND defense............my guess is these were young guys who didnt see much of Bourque playing.

how would you guys rank the best DEmen ever???

id say....1-Orr, 2-Bourque.......after that you can argue 3,4,5 and so on, but 1-2 i think are those 2 guys.

What no love for PJ Stock?  

Bourque is the best I've seen.  Especially in his younger days he had speed, puck handling behind the net and at the point, strength in the crease and the most accurate heavy shot ever.  Never saw Orr, except for highlight reel stuff, so I won't dare to compare.  Lidstrom is too much offense not enough defense for me. 

Orr is definately number one. Hands down. Noone compares.

Ray is number two. Ray didn't have any weeknesses. Great at every aspect of the game.

Lidstrom wouldn't even be in the top 5 in my book. Great offensively and pretty good defensively obviously judging by his +/-. But he doesn't have a physical part to his game. If he gets the Norris this year it's because of his points and +/-.

I'd have to put Denis Potvin 3rd on my list. Then Larry Robinson 4th.

Bourque easily #2, because I think after 5 Norris' it got a little harder for him to win them.  Plus he played when scoring and offense was way higher and before (and a bit during) the trap.  So there was a different era as well.

HEY, here is an argument to place him as #1:  He played forever.  He pretty much was NEVER hurt.  I know Orr was better, but I remember the same arguments with Gretsky v Lemieux... and the solid thing that no one could argue with was Gretsky was healthy all the time.  Yes it may be a stretch, but hey, Bourque was there when the Bruins needed him all of the time...not that injuries are anyone's fault, but such is life....

Like I said it is an argument...

Also Bourque was the fastest hockey player I have ever seen skating backwards.... He was faster backwards than Bob Gainey going forwards.  I remember that because I was in the Garden for a Boston Montreal game and Gainey was on a 1 on 1 with Bourque, and Bourque had to slow down or he would have piled into Andy Moog behind him, and he had to wait for Gainey to try to get by him.

Now if Gord Kluzak could have been playing a full career. wow.  He possibly could have been better than Bourque, but that is speculation.

What about Harold Snepts?  Ha ha.

I will admit a bias AGAINST Lidstrom, mainly because I have not seen him play live... I mean at a hockey rink.... only on TV.  Doug Harvey must have been pretty good as well, although I haven't even seen a highlight shot of him ever.

Yeah whatever. It has nothing to do with it being on the Bruins board. It's about facts.

If your a young guy than you really don'y know.

Smarter on defense? Are you kidding me? Bourque was better defensively than he was offensively. And he was pretty good at both. I don't think anyone could give an open ice hip check the way Bourque did. You don't even see hip checks anymore.

Besides, it's hard to take you serious when you can't even spell Bourque or defense correct.