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When I was a kid I had the great pleasure of watching Bobby Orr play for the Bruins. He had been trumpeted as a savior of the Boston Bruins who up to that point had been mired in under achievement. We awaited his arrival with great anticipation. A bunch of us took the train into the old garden to see his first game and as kids often do we were somewhat skeptical about the new kid. After all he was only about 6 months older than us. How on earth was he going to turn the Bruins around?
The rest, of course, is history. He was something very special. He was poetry in motion. His command of the game was complete. No one had ever been so dominant from the defenseman's position. When he had the puck sometimes it appeared as though he was a man against boys. The puck would stay on his stick like it was a magnet. He was rush up the ice with speed that made others look like they were standing still.
The impact of Orr in this region was manifested in a boom in ice hockey as a sport and as a business. Rinks began to sprout up all over the state and school systems which did not have hockey as a varsity sport soon began to add teams. It soon became a rage and was further advanced when the Bruins and Orr brought home a Stanley Cup.
'Jesus saves and Esposito scores on the rebound' was the favorite bumper sticker but it was Orr who made that Big Bad Bruin team what it was.
My oh my what a long steep fall has happened since. The Bruins along with the rest of the NHL are out on strike and the season is soon to be cancelled and quite frankly no one I know gives a damn. How can grown men act so foolishly? The owners and players have taken a game in which people like Orr were making one tenth what the players today are making and they are on the verge of making it a junior varsity sport.
This will end sometime and the only thing the NHL player lockout/strike will serve as is an example of how greed can destroy something. In business and at home when something stupid or foolish is about to happen, parents or bosses will say hold on 'let's not be NHL about this'.
Phillip A. Gallagher 2 14 05
