from Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press,

At the end of the season, if you’re the best player in the NHL, the trophy they give you is named after Ted Lindsay. That’s all you really need to know. He won four Stanley Cups and once led the league in scoring, was a Red Wings general manager and briefly their coach, and those accomplishments don’t begin to tell this guy’s story. Compact and powerful, he never grew beyond 5 foot 8, and by the time he reached his 90s, old age had stooped him even more. But no one stood taller than Ted Lindsay in the world of hockey.

No one.

And now that he has passed away, he hovers above the game for real.

Throw the switch. Close down the plant. The Production Line is finally at rest. Sid Abel departed at age 81 and Gordie Howe made it until 88. Lindsay was the last to go, living to within four months of his 94th birthday before passing away Monday at his home in Oakland Township. No surprise he got the longevity prize. Ted, in his way, was always the toughest.

“I liked the corners,” he once told the media, and the only players who say that are the ones unafraid of a fight. Lindsay was not only unafraid, he looked forward to the contact.

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