I didn't get a chance to add to my Bobby Orr ice time post (and I'll try to add a home game, I really thought the RS game was a home game until I had already started and saw it was not...and by that point, I said, "F it...I already downloaded it and started it")
The 1970 game was the earliest full game I've seen of Orr and, boys, it goes without saying...but "whoa"...wow...I'll take that player over any player I've ever seen. If he kept that up, what he was doing in 1970 up for even a 12 year career, I think he's my #1 ever. I don't think 1974 Orr (which I've seen several times) is the same player...even though the numbers might be better points-wise or whatever, I don't think he's even on the same tier as 1970 Orr.
To put some questions to bed, "how good was he defensively?" Well, he's always well positioned, in the beginning and late part of his career...super-smart and he is probably revolutionary in a sense that he doesn't get credit for, he plays "modern" defense 40 years before anyone else was. He didn't get pushed back with the attack against, he fronted it, he jumped pucks and routes and then started the rush in transition...then because he was so fast, he led the rush in transition...I've seen defensemen carry the puck before him...Harvey did it, Shore did it...hell, even Tim Horton did it across two lines....I've seen that...not that Orr wasn't better at it or that it wasn't impressive, but that's not where the laurels should lie on "revolutionary"...he created so many turnovers by playing the game on his toes instead of his heels...
Modern defensemen that don't defend a lot but are rocks defensively, like Drew Doughty, they play like this...I've seen Doughty since he was in junior (where after one shift, I said, "I just saw the next Ray Bourque"), I've never seen Doughty stuck in his own zone for 30 consecutive seconds under pressure...too smart, too aggressive, too competitive and too good to let that happen...that's Orr, except the gap between him and the next guy is insane...that's what he was first to do.
People give Erik Karlsson a hard time because they haven't watched his maturity as a player over the last few years and seen that he's evolved defensively and is much better than his younger days, he still gets that "main board reputation" as being garbage at it and it's just not true...the best modern analogy I can give to what Orr was in his early days to now is, here are the d-men in the league...
1. Karlsson
...
2. Gostisbehere
3. Vlasic
...
the rest...
Like, that's what that gap feels like...there's one other really offensive guy in the league, but not near the level that he is...and one other guy that can lock stuff down but doesn't have the talent to do more with the puck...and then the bell curve really starts to open up and you get "all the other guys"...so get your list of the top 30 d-men today in your head...take out all of them, leave Karlsson (as Orr) and then Ghost and Pickles, and there's no one else...that's what it looks like...
The guy in 1974 is a wagon, don't get me wrong...but he's not all over you like young Orr was...Orr was the lone spotlight...I know Espo is there in 1970 but - and conversely - he's not nearly the same guy that you see even two years later in 1972 Summit Series...I think Espo shoots up like a weed from a skills point of view as he hits the meat of his career...early on, Orr was bringing him along for the ride a little it seems before Espo upped his level and injuries deterred Orr...
Give me 12ish years of 1970 Bobby Orr and I give you the best player in the history of the game. Instead, I'll settle for what we got...which is the 2nd best player I've ever seen because he just couldn't do it for as long as I wish he could have...
