Pronger and Niedermayer power Anaheim’s blueline

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2006

By Lucas Aykroyd

As legendary coach Scotty Bowman recently noted, no NHL team has ever had three Hall of Fame defensemen like Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe, and Serge Savard since his Montreal Canadiens of the late 1970’s. But the Anaheim Ducks come pretty close to that level with Norris Trophy winners Chris Pronger (2000) and Scott Niedermayer (2004) on the back end.

“When you have those two guys playing close to 55 minutes combined per night, it’s a major contribution,” said Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle, who was named the NHL’s best defenseman himself in 1981. “We’re very fortunate to have players of their caliber.”

Indeed, without Pronger and Niedermayer, the Ducks likely wouldn’t have set the NHL record for the longest consecutive points streak from the start of the season, which they achieved in their 16th game versus Vancouver in a 6-0 win on November 9.

Niedermayer, who won three Stanley Cups with the New Jersey Devils, signed with Anaheim as a free agent in August 2005 to play with his brother Rob. He’s a superstar who’s won every title available to him (Olympics, World Cup, World Championships, and Memorial Cup), and it was no surprise when the Ducks chose the smooth-skating British Columbia native as their captain.

Pronger arrived in Southern California this summer in a deal with Edmonton for Joffrey Lupul and Ladislav Smid plus draft picks. It was a controversial situation, since Pronger’s wife allegedly pushed him to request a trade out of the northern Canadian city after the 198-cm, 100-kg veteran had led the Oilers to the Stanley Cup finals versus Carolina. The gossip doesn’t seem to have affected his play, however.

“Chris is amazing at knocking pucks out of the air,” said Niedermayer. “Actually, he does everything well. That’s a huge advantage. He can kill penalties or play physical, and he has a great shot and passing skills for offensive opportunities.”

Niedermayer honed his defensive game under the ferocious Scott Stevens in New Jersey. He’s noticed some differences between Stevens and Pronger.

“Scott was a little more physical with his hitting, whereas Chris thinks a bit more offensively. I’ve been blessed to play with these great defensemen.”

Some might argue that Niedermayer is a better international player than Pronger, and that view was supported by Canada’s performance at the 2006 Olympics. Niedermayer skipped the Games due to a knee injury, and the Canadians, who finished seventh, really missed his ability to rush the puck through the neutral zone. Pronger struggled all tournament and coughed up the puck on the play that led to Alexander Ovechkin’s winning goal for Russia in the quarter-finals.

But in the NHL, both men are invaluable commodities, and they still have lots to give in their early 30’s.

One month into the season, Niedermayer and Pronger were both contending for the team lead in scoring, which is unusual for defensemen. If they were more concerned about personal goals than team victories, they might wonder if their combined excellence will wind up splitting the Norris Trophy vote in favor of someone like Nicklas Lidstrom at the end of the year.

However, Niedermayer is focused on winning another Cup, and he hopes that Anaheim GM Brian Burke can create a culture of winning similar to New Jersey’s.

“I was obviously very fortunate to be part of the Jersey organization. Lou Lamoriello is a very smart general manager and put together a competitive team the whole time I was there. That’s all I’ve ever known. When I came here last year, we didn’t start off very well, but then we got things going a bit. It takes a while to build that atmosphere. You just have to continue to work hard and push to be better.”