Red Wings greats Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom thank Detroit in Hall

Sergei Fedorov was known as a fun-loving player and quipster, but kept his speech mostly on the serious side. “I’m a testament that anything can happen”, said the much decorated American Olympian. “His speed and strength, he was just awesome”.

Ted Lindsay, whose 50th anniversary of being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame is next year, was in the town where in 1956 his life was threatened by Maple Leafs fans if he played in a semifinal game of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Bowman didn’t deliver a Cup to Buffalo, but he helped launch Housley’s Hall of Fame career.

Former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman even used him on defense on occasion.

“I’m sure they’ll remember me forever”, she said. “He was a terrific defensive player, too, which being from Europe wasn’t always the case”. Detroit must find its best form against Washington, which has won four of its last five games and is one of only five teams in the league with double-digit victories.

The seven-time Norris Trophy winter noted you can win a lot of awards in hockey “but you can’t win the Hall of Fame”. His ability to dominate was indisputable.

“He’s a passionate hockey man who has done a lot for hockey in Detroit and for hockey here”, Staal said. I’d like to thank all the fans that drove us to those wins. “But we think MacInnis takes it up a notch”. He was there in November 2007 when Ron Francis was inducted after a playing career that included two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins and another trip to the Stanley Cup final with the Hurricanes in 2002. They probably weren’t wrong to think that. He intimidated, but also commanded respect and attention and played with a hard edge.

Fedorov told the story of how he defected after an exhibition game ahead of the 1990 Goodwill Games. I was excited to see nice plane. He scored 483 goals, once scoring 56 in a season.

“He was an ultra-talented player”, Bowman said. “He could play at a level most players couldn’t”.

“He was one of the better skaters I faced”, Hall of Famer Mike Modano said. He had great intelligence. He was a rare breed that could do everything really well.

“You could never push him off the puck. His leg strength was so above everybody’s else, and that made him impossible to get off-balance”.

“No”, he said. “I have no idea”. Do we ever miss him, right now!

“You could say virtually every one of them”, said Pronger. I was a more offensive guy and he was all-around really good. “They were very effective for us”. When he wasn’t dismantling you or your team, he was an absolute joy to watch.

There was a point when the reality – the realization his lifelong dream of winning the Stanley Cup finally was about to happen – hit Sean O’Donnell, hit him as subtly as a crosscheck. He ended it with a holdout. Fedorov signed. The Wings matched. A member of the triple-gold club with Olympic and world championship gold medals for Sweden to go with his Cup wins. What is truly scary to consider is just how devastating Jagr could have been, and how high his career point total could have soared had he not played three seasons in the KHL from 2008-11.

• Nill on Lidstrom and Fedorov: “You’re talking a few special, special players”.

He was so fast and so strong with the puck. He could do things by himself.

The irony is not lost on Pronger that he was once on of the most feared hitters in the NHL – and one of the more frequently suspended – and now works for the league in the department of player safety. He let me off the team, that’s unheard of. Sergei was a game-breaker. “I don’t think so many people, even my teammates, know that”. That was a tough time for him. Down deep, it didn’t help his career, not at the end. He had a terrific career, with the Wings. He would just look at you and smile. He won the Hart. He won the Selke, too. With the roll he has been on, there is little reason to doubt that he can hit the milestone at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday. “The Hall of Fame will be great opportunity for the city to recognize what a great player he was for us”.

“If you want to show someone how to be a defenseman you show a film of Lidstrom”, Bowman said. “I was so disappointed”. We would have liked him to play for 20 years.

Pronger said he has a greater appreciation now for the effect of concussions and other injuries than he did several years ago. Fifty million. And Sergei didn’t accept it. I just had to hold out my stick and stay in the way and screen. We were hoping he would have two decades in Detroit, but he chose to leave. “As a coach, he was always an interesting guy to talk to because he had a lot of great insight, even for coaches, on different looks at the game”. He wasn’t scared of saying what he thought.

Former Red Wing Tomas Holmstrom, also in attendance Monday, knew what it was like to face Pronger.

That theme was fitting because Steve Yzerman was the person who presented Lidstrom with his official Hall of Fame plaque.

When: 7:30 p.m. Monday. He won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP in 1994. After leaving the Wings in 2003, he played for the Mighty Ducks, Blue Jackets and Capitals.

In my mind, Chris will go down as one of the greatest defencemen to ever play in the National Hockey League. Fedorov defected from the Soviet Union in 1990. He was a players’ coach.