Red Wings' Lidstrom wins fourth Norris Trophy

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Nick Lidstrom has had a good 48 hours. Thursday night he received his fourth Norris Trophy as the NHL's outstanding defenseman, becoming the fourth player in history to win that many.

Two days earlier, he was in Germany cheering on his native Sweden in the World Cup.

And in two months, he hopes to be back with the Red Wings to start another run at the Stanley Cup.

Lidstrom flew from Germany to Vancouver on Thursday for the NHL's annual awards banquet, and his optimism was rewarded when he beat Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer for the Norris, 1,152-817 votes (Lidstrom got 91 first-place votes to Niedermayer's 29).

Only Bobby Orr (eight), Doug Harvey (seven) and Ray Bourque (five) have won the Norris more times.

"It means a lot -- the names that are up there, it means a lot to be mentioned among those names," Lidstrom said.

Lidstrom finished seventh in voting for the Hart Trophy (MVP), won by San Jose's Joe Thornton.

Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk won his first Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, (Henrik Zetterberg finished sixth in the voting, Steve Yzerman seventh and Lidstrom 10th).

Lidstrom came with childhood buddy Joakim Enocksson, a car sales manager in Lidstrom's hometown of Avesta. True story: Enocksson was married Saturday, and, while giving a speech at the wedding reception, Lidstrom told guests that now he and Enocksson were going on a honeymoon to Vancouver.

And since their flight had a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, the two changed the reservations to leave two days earlier and extended their stay in Frankfurt.

Why? In order to be in Cologne on Tuesday, where they cheered Sweden to a 2-2 draw against England.

"We had a great time," Lidstrom said. "Great just to be there in that atmosphere. It's such a big event."

Before flying home this afternoon, Lidstrom plans to meet with Wings general manager Ken Holland regarding contract negotiations. Lidstrom said he's looking at making a two-year deal. It likely will take $8 million annually to sign him, though the Wings are hoping to talk him into taking less to free up cap room to pursue an upgrade in goal. Asked what he'd reply if the team asked him to take $7 million a season, Lidstrom smiled. "That," he said, "is all part of negotiations."

Lidstrom has an excellent argument for why he deserves a raise over the $7.6 million he made last season.

After finishing 2003-04 with an uncharacteristic 38 points in 81 games -- the lowest output of his career in a full season -- Lidstrom rebounded with 80 points in 80 games. All joking aside that it was thanks to being paired with Andreas Lilja ("yeah, if you ask him, that's why," Lidstrom said, laughing), it was the year off that helped.

"I felt refreshed," Lidstrom said. "I just felt hungry, coming back and playing again."

And now, he's hungry again. The fourth Norris was nice, but at 36 Lidstrom isn't yet ready for a career retrospective.

"I think once I retire I'm going to look back at what I've accomplished, but not right now," he said. "The way I look at it now, I'm getting ready for next season."