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Nicklas Lidstrom retired on June 1, 2012, after playing 20 seasons for the Detroit Red Wings
All across the United States and Canada, Feb. 17 was Hockey Day in America. NBC had nationally televised games all day and 14 of the league's 30 teams were playing. With no real profiles on the Detroit Free Press' website, I decided to go back to June 1, 2012, when one of the Red Wings' greatest players decided to retire.

Nicklas Lidstrom's retirement was not the least bit shocking, but fans still did not want to see their captain retire after 20 seasons. Lidstrom was the definition of a leader and was a class act on and off the ice. The article touches on these facts, but they are well known in the hockey community. So, the article decides to look at how the way he retired reflected these attributes.

The article even has a looking forward piece, a critical part of profiles as Marco Williams pointed out to #loweclass last week. The going forward aspect of the story was what Lidstrom was going to do after retirement. Rather than become a media personal to NBC or the Wings' Fox Sports affiliate, Lidstrom decided to return to his hometown in Krylbo, Sweden. The profile does a great job in letting a little known fact about his hometown having the largest wooden horse in the world before he left and it still being there today.

One aspect of the profile I did not like was the authors weird fascination by adding -eth to the end of some words, as if it adds some sort of storybook flow to the article. I get the idea of trying to implore a "the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away," feeling towards the article to show how lucky fans have been. But having it in the lede and one of the last sentences of the article was not a smart move by the writer. 

The article may be slightly untimely, but I believe this article is a great example of what a profile should be. It captures the personality of Lidstrom in details and quotes, while still giving readers a reason to continue. On Hockey Day in America, there is no better person to do a profile on than Nicklas Lidstrom. 
9/30/2013 06:12:05 pm

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts.

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