Could any D-pairs stop Gretzky in 80s?

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Chara and Pronger would stop Gretzky, defenseman in the early Gretzky era were slow pilons that did not play like the D-men of today.

Irony = using Zdeno Chara as an example of a defenseman who is "not a pilon."

If Niedermayer and Stevens couldn't stop him when he was far past his prime, what makes you think he'd have a problem with modern d-men? He played in the same league with Lidstrom, Pronger, Bourque, etc, and they didn't stop him.

Niedermayer was really nothing special in 1997, and if I remember correctly (I might not), Stevens was matched up primarily against Messier.

Gretzky had 5 points in 5 games in that series, hardly great by his standards. The Devils lost because they only scored 5 goals as a team in 5 games themselves.

That said, prime Gretzky would have obviously scored more than 5 points in 5 games.

 

[BlackDog13]

And even then you're just limiting the damage.

He still had 4 points on the 6 total Oiler goals.

Agreed, although limiting Gretzky to 4 points in '83 was tantamount to shutting him down

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

gary suter|nicklas lidström

suter / steve smith?

 

[jkrx]

Bourque - Lidström would be the best bet.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Hugh Jessiman and David Tanabe

 

[begbeee]

Jesus/Satan

They'd hold him under a ppg.

I dont know how good is Jesus but Miro Satan is definetly not good fit in this pair

 

[tarheelhockey]

I dont know how good is Jesus but Miro Satan is definetly not good fit in this pair

Nobody ****s with the Jesus.

 

[Statsy]

Jesus/Satan

They'd hold him under a ppg.

You would still need Buddha in net.