Leetch vs Bourque in their prime

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I watched them both a ton and question anyone that says it's not even close one way or the other as that's just biased.

The fact of the matter is I don't think RB had the extra gear like Leetch and BL didn't have the overall consistency that RB had. I suppose RB was the defensman version of Hank.

At their peaks, which is the originalquestion, I would give the nod to BL as his 1994 playoffs isn't rivaled by any defensive performance I can think of, maybe Duncan Keith in 2015 was close. There weren't many that's for sure.
 
Bourque was a better defender than Leetch but didn't have the same offensive acumen as him. But he was close. A better all around defenseman for sure.
 
I would put Leetch somewhere in the 15-20 area for greatest defensemen and that is no knock on him. But i gotta give Ray the nod here. Leetch is my favorite player to ever play for a rival.
 
The two most "perfect" defensemen, the least error prone, I have ever seen were Bourque and Nicklas Lidstrom. Leetch was the more dynamic of the two (Bourque vs Leetch) but Bourque was just as productive. It's not really a fair comparison, in much the same way that you can't really compare Leetch to Fox, as they were different players with different skillsets.
But honestly, as much as I love Leetch, starting from scratch, I would have to take Bourque.
 
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This is a situation where you'll have a lot of people saying that it's close between the two, but even 95% of those people will say Bourque gets the nod.

So in a way, it's close because there's not a huge difference, but it's not close at all because Bourque would overwhelmingly win a poll.

Kinda like how absent Bobby Orr, Brad Park likely wins several Norris Trophies... but Bobby Orr existed, so Park got none.
 
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If you watched Ray in his prime than you are old like me so your memory is not that great. If you are younger than you are most likely going by stats. Forget stats. Guys are underestimating Brian defensively and also underestimating Ray as a shooter. Ray had a slapshot and snapshot that were real weapons. Brian had a bad plus minus because he was a good defender on a bad team.
 
Ray was the shot accuracy champion in his day
Multiple years. Often picked the top corners with his slapshot as well.
Bottom line for me is both guys were great and both guys are sometimes underrated by younger fans imo.
 
Bourque easily. If you ever saw him live you would be amazed at how much he controlled the game. It was different than watching him on TV.
 
Niklas Lidstrom would be a good addition to the conversation. I don't think I watched Bourque enough but I always had the impression that he was just more consistent on defense. Leetch would have a coverage gaff now and then but then he was really great and breaking up 2 on 1s
 

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