Throw in the fact that the slap shot wasn't popularized until Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion had success with it in the early 1950's and it's easy to see why the offensive contribution from defensmen in those era's was often minimal. He was dogged by injuries throughout his career making it hard for him to play a complete season. Without getting into the entire story, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the building in what appeared to be an attempt to stop the results of Octobers election from being certified. Orrs regular season totals rest at 270 goals and 645 assists (915 points) in just 657 games. He also won the Conn Smythe in 1977-78 with 21 points in 15 playoff games to tie with Guy Lafleur for the team playoff scoring lead. He was famous for his end to end rushes and brutal hits. Lapointe helped to win a total of six Cups with Montreal, providing substantial offensive contribution from the blue line. Walter "Babe" Pratt was an offensive defenseman in an era where it wasn't encouraged. He's tied for Kevin Hatcher for 13th in goal scoring. Perhaps a longer career would have seen Craig much higher on this list. Park was a bit of a pocket Potvin for the Rangers, exercising a similar physical presence. Not only was he fast, his. Now, at least five people are dead and President Trump is under real threat of being removed from office prior to Joe Bidens inauguration on January 20th. He was named to the first all-star team that year alongside team-mate Eddie Shore. Rob Blake has managed two 20 or more goal seasons in his career. He had 71 points in 78 games for Dallas in 2005-06. By his third season Borque was a point a game NHL defenseman. He played primarily on the wing until age 10, when he moved to defense. Names like Eddie Shore (who was often Hollett's defensive partner), Dit Clapper and Art Coulter dominated the era. Its time for Orr to step up and to speak out against Trump and his sycophants just as forcefully as he did two months ago. He showed all the toughness and spring steel durability that would be expected from Gordie Howe's son. He suffered a nasty injury from a collision with a net the next year that degraded his offensive ability. The same way teams were forced to design defenses around Brett Hull, they forced to rush the point to keep Al MacInnis from getting that cannon off. The following year Turnbull lead a Salming-less Leaf team past the Kings and to an upset of the heavily favoured New York Islanders in the second round of the playoffs. Paul "Rhino" Reinhart was an Atlanta Flame rookie who made the jump with the organization to Calgary. He broke the 80 point barrier twice. Answer: First off, he was rugged. Orr paved the way for such future defensemen as Denis Potvin, Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque. He would go on to win it again with many of the same teammates in 1972, but there is something special about a players first championship especially when it is won in such a dramatic fashion. Playing with Ovechkin in Washington certainly seems like the right place to do it. Bobby Orr is a former Canadian ice hockey player, counted among the best players of the game. Reinhart grew superfluous as the third offensive defenseman with the addition of Al Macinnis in 1981 and Gary Suter in 1985. It was a huge first season for Orr, leaving him with a Calder trophy and ever-growing fame. He finished the postseason with 11 goals and 23 assists, a total of 34 points. That was second on the team in playoff scoring only to Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora. "Bobby Orr was better on one leg than anybody else was on two," Canada teammate Darryl Sittler said. He scored 20 or more goals nine times in a season, 30 or more three times. After leaving the NHL Fredrick played five more seasons in the Swedish Elite League. His .602 points per game is impressive and indicative of an able playmaker. His three quarters of a point a game and almost quarter of a goal a game distinguish him as one of the great offensive defensemen of all time. He endorsed Trump back in October, taking out a full-page ad of the New Hampshire Union Leader, where he called Trump the kind of teammate I want.. Having made the trade for Esposito and with Orr already in the mix, the Bruins sensed better times ahead. 74 Year Old #23. Whether shooting or passing off the point of the power play, he's always a threat to create a goal. Expectations were high for this first round pick. He quarterbacked the power play in Tampa Bay and he was able to keep up with the high priced talent that was there. Douglas Bradford "Brad" Park (born July 6, 1948) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Coffey was also one of those rare offensive lights who managed to be a point a game player in the playoffs. Not only was he one of the best at reading plays, he was also more than capable of contributing offensively. Playing in an era where defensemen usually didn't contribute offensively, "The Great" Gadsby was far ahead of his time. "Absolutely," Orr, 68, said. Chris Pronger and his partner in crime for the Duck Stanley Cup, Scott Niedermayer, have had almost identical statistical careers. Widely considered the best defenseman to ever play the game,and even considered by some the best player ever, the legendary No. He skated like the wind and had one of the hardest slap-shots ever. . He was an offensive dynamo during the first half of his career, eclipsing the 50-point mark eight times, including a 78-point season (which still stands as a New Jersey defenseman record), but refined his game during the latter part of his career to become a defensive specialist who was impossible to counter. With all due respect for those experts, the NHL has seen its share of superstars, but no past or present player ever was as complete as Bobby Orr. he became the Jets best player leading the team in scoring from the back end three years in a row. Though the Bruins struggled with other problems en route to a last-place finish in the final season of a six-team NHL, Boston fans took a renewed interest in the team as home attendance at Boston Garden increased by 41,000 that season. Pronger is a man whose offensive production increases in the playoffs. It was the shot that made Al great. Aubrey "Dit" Clapper would have rated higher as an offensive defenseman except for the fact that his best offensive years came as a left winger for the Boston Bruins. It can be said that Bobby Orr created the "Offensive defenseman.". Eddie Shore was another iconic Boston Bruin offensively-talented defenseman. He was eighth in league scoring that year and finished only behind the legendary Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull on his own team. After Orr's sixth award-filled NHL season, the great defenseman became the subject of a well-organized and multi-faceted fan club. Visnovsky has managed to average .572 points per game for his career so far. He comes out behind only Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Denis Potvin, and Paul Reinhart for goals per game in the playoffs. His prowess was recognized through-out the league. Howe's longevity has to be a factor for me. As a sophomore he scored 18 goals and 67 points in the regular season. Howe's peak looks like it was about 21 years long. Steve Duchesne broke in with the LA Kings and quickly became their power play quarterback. It felt like a five-player stampede moving toward you and at his pace. January 27, 2017, 9:36 PM. Eddie had a will to play and a knowledge of the game that made him a great if eccentric teacher of hockey skills years after he stopped playing. Next year he scored 26 goals and had 64 points in 81 games. Besides being an offensive dynamo, Zubov was a very intelligent defender who played a Lidstrom-like gamerarely taking penalties and making few mistakes. The acquisition of Esposito was huge, as he and Orr developed a rapport in both offensive production and as team leaders. He was considered one of the sport's greatest players. Paul Coffey was perhaps the fastest man ever to lace up skates. Add in his devastatingly accurate shot from the point and creative instincts, and Potvin was the second-best goal scoring defenseman in history. Teams: LA, Phi, Que, Stl, Ott, Stl, LA, Phi, Det. And you know the rest: Orr soared through the air in ecstasy having just won his first Stanley Cup. Often a top 5 dman, but never top 1 or even top 2. He took home the Hart, Norris, Art Ross, and Conn Smythe Trophies and his first Stanley Cup . 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During Games 1 and 2 in St. Louis, Boston outscored their opponent 12-3. He moved on to Pittsburgh where he made an offensive contribution right away. He was a great skater and supremely confident with the puck. During the playoffs he scored goals at a higher rate then in the regular season. He's one of those players who is better when the games are important. At 31, he was the youngest former player living at the time of his induction. He favoured long passes out of his own zone after drawing the forecheckers into him. The Hall of Famer put up five seasons of 40 points or more with Chicago and. He was fair skater and an able puck mover, but his shot moved him into the offensive elite of the game. Playing against the completely unknown Russian speedsters in the seminal Summit Series in 1972, Park was never at a loss. He also finished fourth in the voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy (regular-season most valuable player). Maybe he didnt want the media to run rampant with such a small footnote after all, the Bruins had just clinched the franchises first championship since 1941. Detroit had their best playoff run in two decades making it to the conference final the next year. Some examples of his scoring prowess are: seven 20-goal-plus seasons (including one 31-goal season), 12 60-point-plus seasons (including a 66-point rookie season and a 97-point season), 338 career goals and 1,232 career points (both totals fourth all-time for defensemen, behind Bourque, Coffey and MacInnis). Youve probably heard of Bobby Orr. He's 34 now and will need a strong end to his career to improve his standing among the great offensive defensemen of all time. Salming was named to the NHL first All-Star team once, the second All-Star team five times and played in three All-Star Games. No other NHL defenseman has ever managed to score more than .3 goals a game. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. MacInnis is the third-highest scoring defenseman in NHL history. That 1970 series produced an iconic image of Orr flying through the air after scoring the title-clinching overtime goal in the fourth and final game. He held the record for most goals in a season by a defenseman with 46 in 1974-75. While offensively brilliant, Housley was average to mediocre in his own end, as he has a career plus/minus rating of minus-53. Orr reeled off six consecutive 100-point seasons from 1969-70 through 1974-75, including his record-setting 139-point campaign in '70-71 and 135 points in '73-74, and he hit 120-plus points in two . That same year, Orr had his No. Bobby Orr Highlights. During the 1998 playoff run he had 15 points in 22 playoff games and won his second cup in a row with the Red Wings at the grand old age of 37. He was one of only two great offensive defenseman to be more than a point a game player for his entire career. He won the James Norris trophy as the leagues best defenseman that year. Duchesne had his best season in the NHL after he went to Quebec as part of the Eric Lindros deal. Coffey was the defenseman who broke Orrs record for most goals in a season with 48 in 1985-86 and just missed Orrs point record with 138 points that same year. Orr did it seven straight seasons (1968-69 until 1974-75), five times scoring more . Bourque is one of the all-time great NHL defensemen, winning the Norris Trophy five times. He's a player who could easily slip off this list with a couple of bad seasons. During the Boston Bruins 1969-70 seasonif(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'thehockeywriters_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_3',823,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-thehockeywriters_com-medrectangle-3-0');,Orr netted a remarkable 33 goals and 87 assists in 76 games. For good measure, he added another hat trick in the postseason. Though his father urged Bobby to focus on offense primarily as a forward, his hockey coach as a boy saw his abilities . From 1937 on he was a defenseman for the Bruins. He started playing from an early age, and his exemplary defense skills made him join the 'Metro Junior A League' as a junior with . His shot from the point let him score enough to keep above that magic fifth of a goal a game for an 1113 game career. BU's Thomas Whalen celebrates hockey great and the Big Bad Bruins of 1970 in new book. The talented Leetch is one of the all-time great offensive defensemen. He then managed six goals in six games as the Capitals lost to the Islanders in the first round of the playoffs. It is claimed by some that Horton was the first player in the NHL to use the slap shot as a reliable offensive weapon. His 15 points during Chicagos 1961 Cup run led the team. It left a Canadian public wondering what a healthy Orr might have done in that series. That's what made him so different. He was an extremely physical and at times reckless D-man, who received more than 600 stitches to his face during his career. Lapointe was named to the NHLs first All-Star team once and the second All-Star team three times. As a young player he got to play with and learn from the legendary Brad Park. Orr combined speed, strength, skill and hockey savvy at both ends of the ice. After setting a record for points by a defenseman with 64 during the 1968-69 season, Orr nearly doubled that total with 120 in 1969-70. Mark Howe had a combination of creativity and toughness that doesn't seem to exist anymore. A second deal was worked out with the Imlach coached Toronto Maple Leafs that Kelly accepted. Weaker defensive play, a lack of size and perceived lack of grit has always seemed to diminish the regard he's gotten over the years. Bourque was Boston's other great defenseman, a magisterial, super smooth stalwart who nonetheless has always been cloaked in a touch of shadow. I was really trying to get the puck on net, and I did.. The 19 goals in Detroit and 3 in Bostonmarked his last +20 goal season. First Name Bobby #14. His considerable goal scoring ability improved in the post season where he managed to score almost a quarter of a goal a game. Impressively, he amassed more than 100 points for a sixth consecutive (and last) season. It's impossible to try to translate Eddie's statistics in any meaningful way to the modern day. Orr was also quite happy to hit and to drop the gloves. Only Ray Bourque managed to score more with 410, while playing 203 more games. With blazing speed and tenacity, Bobby Orr always seemed to be around the puck. The puck bounced off the right boards and Orr stopped short,corralling the puck with his skate. It was the moment Orr realized he was a champion, captured and engraved in history. Coach Dick Irvin feared Harvey would end up coughing up the puck in front of his own net, but it almost never happened. 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