Orange County Register

Whenever he does decide to retire, Scott Niedermayer won’t have eye-popping statistics on his resume — thanks to the New Jersey Devils’  successful defense-first, defense-second and defense-third system — but he’ll be a sure-fire Hall of Famer because of his uncanny hockey sense and his ability to deliver in his team’s most dire moments.

There’s also a trophy case that most hockey players would dream about and that effortless glide around the ice that puts some figure skaters to shame. Oh, and that majestic playoff beard (pictured).

Eric Duhatschek of the The Globe and Mail touches on the impact of Niedermayer’s absence for Team Canada in  the 2006 Winter Olympics and what he could mean for the squad in 2010. 

By the way, how did Niedermayer not win the Norris Trophy in 2005-06 after carrying the Ducks to the Western Conference finals and putting up 63 (his career-best before 2006-07) points on a bad knee? Nicklas Lidstrom is the gold standard but even Wayne Gretzky said to this reporter that Niedermayer should have been considered for the Hart Trophy that season.

Just asking.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.