Number Four Bobby Orr

Author:Sports Illustrated [Farber, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7710-7926-9
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2013-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

FROM THE TALK IN BOSTON WATERING SPOTS such as the 99 Club, the Iron Horse and the Tam O’Shanter, one would think the Bruins are playing like the Marblehead Midgets and that Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Derek Sanderson and friends ought to be arrested for impersonating hockey players. One of the city’s fickle alarmists calls the Bruins “our new failure symbol for the winter.” What? “We’ve got Jim Plunkett and the Patriots headed for the Super Bowl someday,” the man explains, “and we’ve got the Celtics back on top again. So that leaves the Bruins. What’s happened to the Bruins?”

Indeed, people are asking that very question all over town. They want to know why Orr doesn’t rush the puck all night the way he did before he became a millionaire, why Esposito has not yet scored his 76 goals, why Sanderson has become tamer than Mickey Mouse and why all the Bruins are lobbying for the Lady Byng Trophy. Last week even the club’s management got into the alarm act. “We’re in trouble, deep trouble,” said general manager Milt Schmidt, “and we’d better snap out of it fast — or else.”

Deep trouble? If deep trouble for the Bruins meant losing one of their last 18 games, if deep trouble meant being a tad out of first place with two games in hand; then, yes, the Bruins definitely were in deep trouble. “I’d love to have such trouble,” said Buffalo’s Punch Imlach, offering his condolences to Schmidt. Nevertheless, there is a feeling, even among the players, that there are a few things wrong with the Bruins, and that unless they resolve to correct them in the New Year their dreams of a Stanley Cup may vanish once again.

For one, the lordly Bruins treat most of their games against expansion teams with the casual disdain of an Ali fighting a Mathis. “If we do think like that in some games, we shouldn’t be here,” says Bobby Orr, “but I guess we do. It’s mental, that’s all. How can you possibly get yourself mentally motivated 78 times a year? No way. A lot of nights only three or four of our guys really are up for a game. Thank goodness we have so much talent on this team that any three or four players can carry us some nights.” Twice recently this approach has backfired on the Bruins, however, as both Pittsburgh and Buffalo rallied from two-goal deficits to earn ties. “In keeping with the spirit of the Christmas season, my guys tried to be charitable,” said Boston coach Tom Johnson after last week’s 4-4 tie with Buffalo. “Someday they’ll learn — I hope.”

What is worse, the image of the Bruins as a big, bad, bowl-’em-over team has gone into hibernation. “We don’t even breathe on the other guys anymore,” complains Milt Schmidt. It is the shameful truth that one night this season the Bruins played an entire game without taking a single penalty.

Sanderson, a man unspoiled by modesty in victory or defeat, blames himself for the Bruins’ abrupt turn away from a more violent style of hockey.

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