DetroitRedWings.com’s Art Regner continues his “How Swede It Is” series with an article about defenseman Borje Salming. Salming only played one season in Detroit–his last in the NHL–but his importance to the Red Wings’ Swedes is massive:
Though he meshed well on and off the ice with his Red Wings teammates Salming retired from the NHL at the conclusion of the season. Yet, his impact on the Red Wings Swedish players that followed him is immeasurable.
“Back in ’91, before I joined the Wings, he was my partner (at the 1991 Canada Cup). I was actually an extra defenseman when the tournament started and someone got hurt and I got paired with Börje and I played all the games with him,” Red Wings legend Nick Lidstrom said. “I was nervous. I was nervous to meet him, but he made me feel so relaxed. I remember he told me, ‘Just go out there and play your game, I’m going to take care of the defense, you can go join the offense’ and be the offensive player that I was at a young age. He made me feel comfortable right away, which was huge for me.”
Lidstrom remembers how Salming showed up for every game and how he never took a shift off, something he tried to emulate during his Red Wings career. He was also impressed with how Salming conducted himself.
“He probably exceeded what I expected. Off the ice he was such a nice man. He cared for other people in the locker room, he didn’t act like the superstar he was. He was just being himself and really was thinking about everyone else as well,” Lidstrom said. “He paved the way for not only Swedes but for European players when he came over in the early ’70s. He wasn’t the first European player, but he was one of the first that became a star. So, he paved the way for all the Europeans the way he played and the way he stood up to the tough hockey that was played back then.
“He was my idol growing up.”
