Let's not rewrite history here.
The Bruins were a 100 point team the eyar before Bourque joined them and went into the 2nd round of the playoffs and were a 105 point team and 2nd round team in his 1st year as well.
You have a point here, but we have to take the passage of time into consideration.
Bruins core when Bourque was in his first years: Middleton, Park, McNab, Ratelle, O'Reilly, Cashman
Goalies: Cheevers, Gilbert, Vachon
Bruins core when Bourque was in his early prime: Neely, Linseman, Janney, Crowder, Kluzak, Burridge
Goalies: Riggin, Lemelin, Keans, Ranford
Bruins core when Bourque was at his peak: Neely, Oates, Janney, Wesley, Sweeney, Galley
Goalies: Moog, Lemelin
Bruins core when Bourque was in his late prime: Oates, Stumpel, Donato, Sweeney... and a bunch of guys who couldn't be described as "core" even in a stretch
Goalies: Ranford, Lacher, Billington, Tallas
And of course they hit the "reset" button just before Bourque left, starting over with a young core of Thornton, Allison, Samsonov, Axelsson, Gill, McLaren, Dafoe.
Of the above, there's pretty clearly only two phases where the Bruins had a strong core: the period right when he arrived, which was essentially the last gasp of the Cherry-era team, and the period at his peak when they got beaten in the Finals by Edmonton. Outside of those phases, they never had a well-developed cohesive group... it was whatever junk washed up on shore.
Detroit in the two years before Lidstrom got there was a 70 point, non playoff team and then 76 one round team up to 98 points and 2 rounds in Lidstrom's 1st year.
A parallel analysis for Lidstrom:
Red Wings core in Lidstrom's first years: Yzerman, Fedorov, Ysebaert, Ciccarelli, Sheppard, Coffey, Chiasson, Konstantinov
Goalies: Chevaldae, Osgood
Red Wings core in Lidstrom's early prime: Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Larionov, Kozlov, Murphy, Konstantinov
Goalies: Vernon, Osgood, Hodson
Red Wings core in Lidstrom's mid-prime: Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Hull, Larionov, Draper, Chelios
Goalies: Osgood, Hasek, Legace, Joseph
Red Wings core in Lidstrom's late prime: Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Holmstrom, Chelios, Kronwall
Goalies: Osgood, Hasek, Legace, Conklin, Howard
It's almost the opposite of Bourque's Bruins; there was always a long-term core of star players around Lidstrom, and when Father Time caught up with the first batch they were replaced with a comparably outstanding group. At no point in Lidstrom's actual career did the Wings find themselves drifting in mediocrity.
I see your point -- sometimes people act like Bourque's teams were pure garbage and Lidstrom was just a passenger on a dynasty -- but if you bore down to the individuals who passed through those locker rooms, it's obvious that Lidstrom enjoyed a much greater level of support from his teammates in nearly every phase of his career. The fact that the Bruins were good and the Wings were bad before these guys arrived as rookies is pretty trivial.
And that's before you even get into the fact Lidstrom was playing in the Mike Ilitch franchise for Scotty Bowman and Mike Babcock, not in the Jeremy Jacobs franchise for Gerry Cheevers and Mike Milbury. That's almost night-and-day.
