from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

When Detroit Red Wings legend Nicklas Lidstrom was a boy growing up in Vasteras, Sweden, when it came to hockey heroes, he only had eyes for Börje Salming.

“Börje Salming became my idol early on,” Lidstrom recalled. “Börje Salming was my big hero growing up.”

Today, one Swedish Hall of Fame defenseman is helping another as Lidstrom offers his support to Salming in the latter’s fight against ALS.

Seeking to be encouraging promotion of research into the deadly, incurable disease, creation of the Börje Salming ALS Foundation took place. Lidstrom is serving on the board of the foundation.

“I received a request about a month ago if I wanted to sit on the board and be involved, and I felt that was a matter of course,” Lidstrom told Swedish media site Expressen.se. “I am honored to be able to help Börje in some way and to help with this collection that we are going to do to stop this terrible disease.”

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