Happy 65th Bobby Orr, the greatest hockey player ever

I'm not much of a hockey guy...so please excuse my ignorance: Which guy would still be the league's all-time leading scorer even if you didn't include his goals scored, because he had that many assists?

 

Never got to see Orr play live (a little too young), but the Orr vs. Gretzky debate is an interesting one. Guess I'm partial to Wayne, but that's taking nothing away from Orr.

 

Probably not the defenseman.

 

Gretzky. No one's arguing his greatness.

 

Gretzky was great, no question. Orr was better - he could do it in all three zones. The most complete hockey player who ever lived, who ever will live.

 

Not complete: Bobby Orr's career.

 

That's for sure. You could play that game with a lot of people, including Gretzky, who could and maybe should've played until he was 40.

But Orr....finished at 28....that's a tragedy. He had done it all, mind you, but it's still sad to think of what else he would have done. I mean, imagine him and Gretzky going head to head in the early '80s.

 

Saying Bobby Orr's career ended at 28 is being generous given his last few seasons. Wayne Gretzky played more than twice as many games.

Here's my method of determining greatness: If told you could have a player for his entire career but that his career would not change from what it was, who would you take? The only answer for the NHL is Wayne Gretzky. You would get 300 more games from Gordie Howe, sure, but he wasn't as dominant. (That is not to say Howe wasn't dominant.)

 

Bobby Orr's knees vs. Joe Namath's -- which is the bigger "what if?"

Namath squeezed more years out of his, but....well, I'm a Jet fan. (And a Ranger fan.)

And, truth be told, a Bobby Orr fan

 

Joe Namath was never that good.

 

Saying Bobby Orr's career ended at 28 is being generous.

I don't understand what you mean by this. He officially retired at age 30, but his last games of note or importance were played when he was 28 years old.

 

Bobby Orr played 10 games in the season he turned 28, 20 in the season he turned 29 and six in the season he turned 31.