On the evening of March 6 in Detroit, the Detroit Red Wings retired former captain Nicklas Lidstrom’s jersey.

Lidstrom, now 43, played with the Red Wings for all of his twenty seasons, captaining the team for the final six years of his playing career. He retired after the 2011-2012 season. Lidstrom helped lead the Red Wings to four Stanley Cups and became one of the most decorated defenseman to play in the National Hockey League. Over his twenty seasons in the league, Lidstrom accumulated seven Norris Trophies for the NHL’s best defender, was voted into twelve all-star games, and became the first European player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP.

Lidstrom’s number will hang in the rafters in Joe Louis Arena among six other Red Wing legends: Steve Yzerman’s number nineteen, Terry Sawchuk’s number one, Alex Delvecchio’s number ten, Ted Lindsay’s number seven, Sid Abel’s number twelve and Gordie Howe’s number nine.

Among the greats in attendance on March 6 were Chris Chelios, Igor Larionov and Vladimir Konstantinov. Also at the ceremony were members of the Detroit Red Wings  foundation and Lidstrom’s family.

The game following the commemoration to Lidstrom didn’t go quite as well. The Wings took an early one nothing lead off of a backhand from Niklas Kronwall. The lead held until halfway through the second period when Matt Duchene tucked a rebound and tied the game for the red-hot Avalanche. Tomas Jurco quickly responded for the Wings only two minutes after Duchene’s goal to give the Wings a 2-1 lead heading into the second intermission. The Wings’ 2-1 lead only lasted for five minutes into the third period when P.A. Parenteau scored for the Avalanche off of a nice pass from Matt Duchene.

The Red Wings put 37 shots on goal, but due to a great showing by Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Colorado’s goalie, this special game went into the Red Wings’ least favorite period, overtime.

Jimmy Howard played great for the overtime period, but with 31 seconds left in OT, young phenom Nathan Mackinnon threw a cross-crease pass to Andre Benoit, who launched a slap-shot over Howard’s glove. Despite the disappointment of losing their 13th game in overtime this season, there were some positives for the Wings.

The Red Wings traded for Michigan-native center David Legwand on Wednesday, and the game on March 6 was Legwand’s first with his new team. Legwand looked great on the ice, creating a few scoring chances with his line of Gustav Nyquist and Johan Franzen. Red Wing fans across the country are looking forward to watching the 33-year-old play, as he is currently the Wings’ top center due to the Wings facing the all-so-familiar Injury Bug.

The Red Wings are without their captain Henrik Zetterberg for the remainder of the regular season due to a herniated disc, but that is not the only injury which the team is facing. Pavel Datsyuk is out for at least three weeks, Stephen Weiss for at least another week, Darren Helm for at least another week, Daniel Cleary for another week, and Jakub Kindl has been out with an MCL injury since early February.

Although the final outcome of the game on March 6 wasn’t the one many were hoping for, the Red Wings did gain an all-important point for getting into overtime. This point will help keep the Wings in contention for the wild card, which right now is looking like their best chance. Unfortunately for the Wings, they couldn’t find a win March 6 night, but that didn’t change the fact that it was Nick Lidstrom’s night. On behalf of all of the Communicator Sports team, I’d like to thank Nick for his 20-season contribution to the Red Wings organization and for all the good memories.