Larson's Slapper Thrilled Long Before Lidstrom's

Speed fascinates. We can't get enough of it, and that includes the games we watch our teams play.

Joel Zumaya lasers one across the plate, the juiced up gun registers 100+ mph, and the Comerica Park crowd ignites. NASCAR and Indy races mesmerize folks, largely due to the almost unreal speeds the cars attain on their respective ovals. Football draft time comes around, and you'll hear the term "improve our overall team speed" countless times. Then there's the numbing tennis serve that's barely returnable. And so on.

Nicklas Lidstrom is many things, of course. You tend to be so when you're going to go down in history as one of the all-time greatest defensemen to ever lace up an NHL skate.

Smoothe. Unrattled. Deft. Durable. All those Lidstrom is, and to the nth degree.

But when Lidstrom deposited his 200th NHL goal behind Chicago goalie Nikolau Khabibulin Friday night, he revealed another of his trademarks: the blazing shot from the blue line. It was fitting, I thought, that Lidstrom got #200 in that fashion -- booming a slapper on a Red Wings power play. Perhaps 80% of his goals have been scored that way. Speed thrills.

Mathieu Schneider scored #200 last night, reminding us that the Red Wings have three fascinating older defensemen: Schneider, Lidstrom, and Chris Chelios. But the speed factor only applies to Lidstrom, and only to his rocket slap shot.

But before Lidstrom thrilled us with his steady play and blueline howitzer, Red Wings crowds were enthralled by another big slap shot from the point.

Reed Larson scored 188 goals as a Red Wing. And his slapper was one of the few reasons you'd bother to go down to Olympia Stadium, and later Joe Louis Arena, when the rest of the team wasn't much to cheer for.



Larson was a Red Wings defenseman from 1976 to 1986, and he had goal totals like this: 19, 18, 22, 27, and 21. And, like Lidstrom, many of those markers were the result of him cocking that stick and blasting the puck through whatever, and whoever, was in its path -- including the goaltender.

"REED! REED! SHOOOT SHOOOT!"

Those were the chants from the rafters on down when Larson got the puck at the point. Often he'd pause, maybe for dramatic effect, then WHACK! -- the poor puck would be slammed toward the net. And 188 times it found its mark, followed by the crowd's roar of approval. They were giddy moments in an era that had few of them.

Larson was traded to Boston in March 1986, the Bruins looking for more scoring from their defensive corps for the stretch run. The Red Wings got the less remarkable but steady Mike O'Connell in return.

It kind of went downhill for Larson after leaving Detroit. He only scored 34 more goals before playing his final NHL game in the 1989-90 season.

But as a Red Wing, Reed Larson had a heavy shot, scored a lot of goals, and dished out his share of physical punishment. In Detroit he accumulated over 1,100 penalty minutes. He made some All-Star teams.

He didn't quite reach 200 goals as a Red Wing, as Lidstrom has. He won no Stanley Cups. But let it be known that his was the first slap shot that Detroit hockey fans got juiced up about. Today's Wing Nuts ought to be told.

"REEEEED! SHOOOOOT!"