so that subject line has very little to do with what is to come but I think it's a pretty cool line! I didn't know if I would ever get a chance to use it and this is probably as close as I will ever come! It's from the song "I Make the Dough, You get the Glory"
I saw Gretzky play. Saw him with the Oilers and with the Kings. He truly was amazing in what he could do with a hockey stick and a puck on the end of it. His awareness of where EVERY ONE was on the ice (both teammates and opponents) is unrivaled. He could thread the needle with the puck, getting through one, two even THREE defenders to an open teammate. He handled a hockey stick like Tiger Woods does a golf club. Magic wands. He truly is the greatest OFFENSIVE hockey player I have ever seen.
But he would rank no higher than third on my rankings of the all-time greatest hockey players. He cared little for playing defense. He wasn't paid to do that, so I can understand. And he tended to "cherry pick" much of the time, standing up high in the defensive zone, sometimes on the other side of the blue line. And given his wiry stature and build he never engaged in much physical play. He truly deserves his nickname of the "Great One". Just in my book, there are two greatER ones
Number two I would put Gordie Howe. Two points immediately jump to mind. One, Howe did most of his damage when the league consisted of only 6 teams. And given that ice hockey hadn't had much inroads into Europe as it has today, you can make an excellent case that he competed against the 120 or so, best hockey players every night on this PLANET! There was no expansion to dilute the talent pool he went against until the mid-60's. Players that would make today's All-Star teams would be kept down in the minor leagues, unable to crack the elite 120 or so players that were on the rosters in Howe's time. And there is the longevity factor. Howe played long enough to skate along side his SONS! True it may have been more of a promotional idea, but he helped build the WHA, which gave Gretzky his initial professional job. His sons were talented players, not as talented as the old man, but very few were!
Howe played both ways and was known for his physical play. There is the tale of the young player, playing in his first game against Howe. He was asked by reporters what it had been like for him to be on the ice for the first time against the great Gordie Howe, "Mr. Hockey". The player lifted his jersey and pointed to large welt on his chest and merely said, "2nd period."
There is a reason that the term "Gordie Howe hat trick" exists. It means in one game a player accumulated a goal, an assist and five minute fighting penalty! Howe was NASTY, known to let his elbows do his talking in the corners and in front of the net. He comes off as some gracious and soft spoken grandfather when he is interviewed. But I don't think anyone whoever played against him would see him in quite the same light.
Others who came after Howe and Gretzky were supposed to equal or surpass their achievements. Mario Lemieux for one. Eric Lindros was another. But even though they both had Howe's size both were not his equal. Lemeiux cared little for using his size in physical play. It just didn't seem to be his nature. For all his size he really was more akin to being a Gretzky like "finesse" player. And though Lindros had the nasty streak, and didn't mind mucking it up, injuries kept him from living up to his projected potential.
No, for my money, the greatest player ever to play ice hockey was Bobby Orr. He revolutionized his sport, the way Wilt Chamberlain changed basketball or Babe Ruth changed baseball. There was the way those sports were played prior to their arrival and everything after them was different!
What brought this all to mind was, "the Tennessee Stud" recently sent me a video length of some of the highlights of Orr's career. You can check it out for yourself below.
What immediately impressed me was how STRONG of skater he was! Not just fast (and he was fast! With an explosive first step) but how even today's players, with their conditioning and training and all, 30 years after Orr's heyday can't come close to his strength purely as a skater. When you don't see something for awhile you forget and lose your appreciation of just how great he really was!
He was a defenseman, and prior to Orr's entrance into the, that was about ALL they did. It was all they were suppose to do! They rarely ventured any deeper than the blue line, never wanting to be caught out of position and leave their team open to an out manned attack. Orr changed all that. He was an offensive weapon, charging up the ice, carrying the puck deep into the offensive zone, giving the Bruins an extra attacking forward.
But he also played plenty of solid defense. It wasn't just the case of giving up as many goals and he helped score. He played his position, played it well, just with the extra bonus of being an offensive threat.
Last weekend, "the Stud" reminded me of a certain fact; Orr still holds the largest plus/minus (goals scored while on the ice/goals scored against while on the ice) total for a player in a single season. +124. Just for comparison, Pavel Datsyuk of the Red Wings led the in plus/minus this season with +41! Nobody has cracked +50 in more than 5 years, and +60 in more than 10. And you would have to go back to Gretzky in the early 80's to find someone who came close to approaching +100. Larry Robinson, on one of the greatest teams of all-time, the Canadiens of the late 70's came closest to Orr at +120 And NOBODY has ever led the in plus/minus for six seasons like Orr. Gretsky is next with 4. A defenseman who led the league in goals?! In scoring?! Unheard of. Orr may not have INVENTED the rushing defenseman, but he more or less PERFECTED it. No Orr, there would be no Brad Park or Paul Coffey or Ray Borque.
Killing penalties, has changed very little both before Orr and after. If you get the puck while killing a penalty, you shoot it out of the zone, down the ice. But that wasn't the way Orr always did it. It wasn't uncommon for Orr, once gaining possession of the puck on the penalty kill, to engage in a game of "keep away" or "catch me" with the power play(ers). He would take the puck and skate back and around and through the team with the (supposed!) man-advantage until he saw an opening (or felt he had toyed with them long enough!) before throwing the puck up ice. It was unbelievable to watch!
In some ways Orr's career is comparable to Sandy Koufax's career in baseball. Neither of them had particularly long careers. Koufax played for 11 or 12 years I believe. Orr's about the same. Both had their careers prematurely cut short by injuries. Koufax's arm, and Orr's knees. After several injuries and surgeries to "repair" both knees it was said Orr had little knee cartilage left, nearly bone on bone. Both careers because of their shortened length aren't much at first glance, statistically speaking, especially when compared to other players who played much, much longer. But both had INCREDIBLE years or groups of years in which they completely DOMINATED their sports, making their greatness apparent to anyone who saw them perform.
I'd forgotten about how good Orr was. Guess it is the way it is in the day of ESPN and YouTube. If it doesn't happen when a camera happened to be around it doesn't seem to matter as much. Players that didn't have their every step videoed and captured don't seem "better" and "greater" than lesser players we see every evening on Sports Center. For this season or maybe the next. They are the "flavors of the month" or slightly longer. Greatness happened before ESPN could capture. Thankful we still have at least a portion of Orr's considerable highlights to watch. And remember. Y'all have a nice weekend. Chesed. Late.
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