Word: orr
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...most important of these acquisitions was Bobby Orr, who some hockey experts believe is already the best all-round player in the game's history. In his first season (1966), he was the N.H.L.'s rookie of the year and made the All-Star team (on which he has played ever since). In 1970, he won the N.H.L. awards for best defenseman, highest scorer and most valuable player. Amazingly, for a defenseman, Orr this season broke six scoring records, including most assists (102, beating his own record of 87) and most goals by a defenseman...
Promised Land. On the ice, Orr has both blinding speed and a diverse repertory of shifty moves. Skating at full steam, he will suddenly come to a dead stop in front of a startled defender. Then, without losing the puck, he can pivot in a full circle and either flip a backhand pass to a teammate or bolt around the defender. In a variation on the classic give-and-go of basketball, he will lob a lazy pass across the blue line to the center, then streak for the net in time to receive the return pass and slap...
Building around Orr and longtime veteran Bruin John Bucyk (51 goals this year), Boston tapped the minors for Goalie Gerry Cheevers and Center Derek ("Turk") Sanderson. The hairy, mustached Sanderson, a forechecking terror and a Bruins "policeman," is one of the league's best at controlling face-offs. From the New York Rangers, Boston acquired John McKenzie, a hard-charging right-winger who scored 31 goals this season. From the Chicago Black Hawks came another fine right-winger, Ken Hodge (43 goals), plus Centers Fred Stanfield (24 goals) and Phil Esposito. The fast, gangling "Espo" has been playing...
...Sanderson, with a Playboy-style pad and an unbuttoned lip, plays the role of a freaked-out Joe Namath. "Scoring goals," he likes to say, "isn't the only climax in my life." Esposito festoons his locker with trinkets to ward off "evil spirits." Orr has become a prospective millionaire. He is co-proprietor of a successful hockey camp and is just launching a hockey equipment company with projected first-year sales...
...that Orr or any of the Icehouse Gang need worry about security for a while. Already the commanding force in hockey, they are shaping up as a sports dynasty to rival such formerly great teams as baseball's Yankees, football's Packers and basketball's Celtics. Orr, for example, is only 23, Esposito is 29, Sanderson 25 and Hodge 26. At the moment it may still be a debatable proposition whether they are the greatest team the game has ever known. But clearly they will have ample time in which to prove...