Nicklas Lidstrom: The Pursuit of Perfection

The career of Swedish-born NHL superstar Lidstrom—a Hall of Fame defenseman who won four Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings—is detailed in this unsophisticated memoir that’s longer on statistics and anecdotes than insight. In a sometimes nonlinear way, Lidstrom, with sportswriters Nordstrom and Duff, recounts his childhood growing up as part of a middle-class family in a small Swedish town. Lidstrom began playing street hockey as a seven-year-old, and soon dreamed of playing in the NHL. That dream was realized in 1989, when the then-17-year-old was drafted, beginning a two-decade affiliation with the Red Wings (his teammates nicknamed him the “Perfect Human”). Lidstrom’s historic achievements (also listed in a three-page appendix) are interspersed with stories from coaches and fellow players. The prose is unexceptional (“Like all babies, he cried after emerging from his mother’s womb.”), yet the bigger disappointment is the by-the-numbers approach to his life. The narrative works best when he writes about his little-known private life, as with his humble post-retirement role coaching and doing scut work for his kid’s team. Of interest mainly to Lidstrom’s fans, this volume fails to make the sport and the magnitude of his achievements vivid. (Oct.)