The following year Lidster became a member of the Canadian National Team, which led to his participation in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. At the conclusion of the Games, Lidster made his NHL debut by playing in 8 games with the Canucks.
Lidster and Mario Gosselin at the 1984 Olympics for Canada
Lidster would then begin a run of nine years of consistency and durability patrolling the blueline for the Canucks, as he would play a minimum of 63 games and have five seasons of over 70 games. Additionally, his point production was between 22 and 38 points every one of those nine years, save the 1986-87 season when he set a career highs with 12 goals and 51 assists for 63 points, 25 points more than any other season of his career.
Lidster was one of three Canucks tri-captains in 1990-91
Lidster was then dealt by the Canucks to the New York Rangers for the magical 193-94 season, during which the Rangers not only won the Stanley Cup, but did so by defeating the very same Canucks who had dealt Lidster away. Thanks to the extensive travel the Canucks endured as a west coast team and the low playing time he had gotten with the Rangers, Lidster described winning the cup against the Canucks as "bittersweet". "Once we won and we were shaking hands, I realized that I knew the Canucks players better than my own teammates."
For the 1994-95 season, Lidster was once again on the move, this time to the St. Louis Blues. For the second season in a row, Lidster was limited to under 40 games, which had the expected result on his scoring numbers.
Lidster's term with the Blues was brief
St. Louis then traded Lidster back to the Rangers for a second term. Now playing a more defensive role, his number of games played diminished over the next three seasons from 59 to 48 and then 36.
He would then sign with the Dallas Stars late in the 1998-99 season as a free agent after spending the majority of his season with the Canadian National Team, and while he was limited to just 17 regular season games, he did participate in 4 playoff contests as Dallas would go on to win the Stanley Cup that year.
Lidster's final NHL totals are 75 goals and 268 assists for 343 points in 897 games.
During his career he also participated in the World Championships on three occasions, first in 1985 winning a silver medal, and again in 1990 and then again in 1991, earning him a second silver medal.
Today's featured jersey is a 1986-87 Vancouver Canucks Doug Lidster jersey. This style jersey came immediately following the highly controversial "flying V" style worn from 1978 to 1985. After that unconventional style ran it's course, the Canucks logo was promoted from the sleeves to the main crest in a more traditional manner, but still sporting the aggressive colors of the "flying V'. The V shape still appeared on the shoulders and pants, but in a manner certainly less "in your face" as the previous style.
This new version would last four seasons until and even more traditional jersey would be adopted, which included reverting to a white home jersey rather than gold, as was the case for for the previous 11 seasons.
photo courtesy of Classic Auctions
Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1996-97 New York Rangers Doug Lidster jersey.
This alternate style was first introduced for the 1996-97 season and worn for two seasons until being replaced by a white version of the same jersey for 1998-99. The team went back to the original blue version for the 1999-00 season and it remained in use until the 2006-07 season until all alternate jerseys were discontinued for the 2007-08 season when the new Reebok Edge jerseys were introduced.
Today's video section begins with Lidster showing off his offensive skills as he beats the Edmonton Oilers Grant Fuhr.
Next, Lidster battles Rick Tocchet of the Philadelphia Flyers.
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