PICTURING GLORY DAYS OF BOBBY ORR
Hockey legend says Crosby is still the best NHL player, and worries about the speed of today’s game
There is a photo in Bobby Orr’s new book, Bobby: My Story in Pictures, that brings a smile to the author’s face and could cause a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs to imagine what could have been.
In it, a teenage Orr has joined the rush and is skating to the left of the opponent’s net in a game at the old Maple Leaf Gardens. He is wearing the No. 2 — not his familiar No. 4. But the oddest thing about the photo is not his number, but rather his jersey.
It’s blue and white, with a logo of a leaf on the front.
“That was the only time that I wore a Maple Leafs sweater,” Orr said while sitting in a hotel room in downtown Toronto.
“But it was a Toronto Marlies sweater. Being from Parry Sound, we had Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night with Foster Hewitt. My father and my grandfather were Leafs fans. Every one in Parry Sound were Leafs fans.
“I was a big Leafs fan too.” The photo is from a 1965 exhibition game against the Russians. Orr, who was playing for the Oshawa Generals at the time, but was one of 11 players recruited to play for the Marlies to make it competitive.
“Look at the lineup,” Orr said of a roster that included Serge Savard, Jean Pronovost, Derek Sanderson and Don Marcotte. “We were all kids and that was the national team. It was a great game. I think we lost 2-1 or 3-1.”
It would be the closest that Orr, who spent 10 of his 12 seasons with the Boston Bruins, would come to playing for the Leafs.
“The Leafs said I was too young, too small,” he said.
“A couple of teams thought that, so I become a Bruin.”
Does Orr ever think about how his career might have turned out had the Leafs signed him to a contract? Not really, he said. But he does have an appreciation for John Tavares’ decision to sign with his hometown team as a free agent this past summer.
Given the choice, who knows, Orr might have done the same thing.
“I didn’t have Leafs sheets, but I was a Leafs fan. I’ll give you that,” said Orr. “This is (Tavares’) hometown. He grew up a Leafs fan and he looked at the team too. The team’s not bad. They’re going in the right direction. I think if you have the opportunity and they want you, with free agency it can be done. But back then, there was no way.
“I was a Bruin from 14 until they traded me. But once I went to Boston, I was happy as a clam.”
In a one-on-one interview with Postmedia News, Orr spoke about the state of the game, why Sidney Crosby has the edge over Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, and who plays like him the most these days:
When it comes to naming the best player, Sidney Crosby is still the best player — but Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews are not too far behind
“Who do you want: McDavid or Auston or Sid?” said Orr, who’s agency represents McDavid. “I mean, that’s a tough one. But they’re all great players. Sid has won. He competes. My god, he gets the tar beat out of him and he competes. Auston and Connor have come along. They’re the up and comers. They’re going to be two stars in our game for a long, long time.
“McDavid is real special now. He’s going to be unbelievable. But Sid’s not bad. Whenever you win the Olympics and the world championship and the Stanley Cup, that’s pretty good. McDavid’s going to win. He will win. They’re coming on. He’s a special player. My god, the things he does with speed is really incredible.”
The number of injuries that Auston Matthews has endured is a bit troubling.
“I watched the hit the other night and it didn’t (look dirty),” Orr said of the bodycheck that Winnipeg ’s Jacob Trouba delivered on Matthews, which resulted in a shoulder injury. “I just wonder sometimes about the training. These guys are so big and so strong now, and with the speed of the game, it’s scary. And the injuries the guys are going through now.
“That wasn’t a vicious hit in my mind. He just caught him the wrong way or whatever. You’re cutting to the front of the net. If that’s the play that’s there, you do it.
“You hate to see that, but what do you do?
“If you want the game to be safer — and slower — then put the red line back.
“Now, you’ve got to make plays, now you’ve got to make passes, now you’ve got to stickhandle,” Orr said of not allowing two-line passes.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to see it, but one thing they could do to slow things down is put the centre line back in. The game is dangerous. These guys are too big and too strong. On some nights, they’re reckless. You’ve got to pay attention. A guy could just stand there and you run into him and it’s going to hurt you. It’s not like they’re vicious hits.
“That’s the thing that scares me: the injuries. I mean, we’ve got to have some borders. These guys are too fast, they’re too big and they’re too strong.”
Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns are today’s version of Orr — with more facial hair, of course
“There’s two guys out in California — Karlsson and Burns — who play a lot like I played,” Orr said of the San Jose Sharks defencemen.
“They’re offensive minded. Burns is a real nice kid. You might not know it by looking at him. But they let them go
— I was fortunate, they let me go too.
“That was the play I played, that was the way I was most effective.
“I don’t think I would have enjoyed playing any other way. In the end, that’s what forced me out. I couldn’t do what
I once did. I just couldn’t play like that.”
I was a big Leafs fan too ... the Leafs said I was too young, too small. A couple of teams thought that, so I become a Bruin.