We always remember the big events in our lives. Most of these are sad so we rarely talk about them, but we know every detail. We can’t remember where we left our wallet, keys, glasses or coffee cup, but we always know where we were when it happened.
It was a beautiful, sunny day on May 10, 1970. This was Mother’s Day. It was also Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins. While St. Louis had only been in The National Hockey League for 4 seasons, the Boston club had been in business since the 1920’s. Many of those years, the team would be found in the cellar. The fans had waited a long time to see the Bruins capture the Cup, and today surely seemed like the one for the Bruins held a 3-0 series lead. 29 years was an eternity to the long suffering Boston faithful. Little did they know this wait would be nothing compared to: 86 years for the Red Sox, 100 for the Cubs, and over 200 for the British. The British had held a commanding 3-0 series lead as well.
Boston and St. Louis were tied at 4 as we headed to overtime. It was over before you could blink. Orr to Sanderson, back to Orr. Defenseman Noel Picard would trip Bobby. As he flew through the air, Orr would slide the puck under the pads of future Hall of Fame Goaltender Glenn Hall. Before he would land, women had placed pillows on the ice to lighten the impact. That supposedly famous photograph of Derek Sanderson hugging Bobby Orr following the Stanley Cup Winning Goal is actually a deranged, female fan from Section 8, not Derek.
Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end.
We were wrong. A crushing first round playoff exit in 1971 to the Montreal Canadiens was the start. The Boston Bruins did win the Stanley Cup for a second time in 1972, but the end was near. The World Hockey Association took away key players in goaltender Gerry Cheevers and center Derek Sanderson. The expansion draft cost the Bruins right winger, Eddie Westfall.
Shocking losses to the New York Rangers in 1973, the bigtime choke against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974, and the Chicago Black Hawks in 1975 tarnished the two titles.
The playoff losses were rough, but they were not as painful as seeing Bobby Orr don a Chicago Black Hawks jersey. After having played only 10 games with the Bruins in 1976, Orr's representative Alan Eagleson worked out a contract deal with the Black Hawks. Eagleson had withheld pertinent information from Bobby Orr, including 18% ownership shares of the Bruins. Orr would play only 26 games in a three year span with Chicago.
The Black Hawks balked at paying him the balance of his contract in 1979, and Orr took them to court, settling in 1983 for $450,000, one-third of the money they owed him. Of this, $200,000 went to taxes and legal fees.
The goal that would surely live on forever in the city of Boston wasn’t just left as a memory, however, as an 800-pound bronze statue commemorating the goal was eventually erected outside the TD Garden to solidify it's place in history. The statue was placed on the western side of the TD Garden for roughly six years before it was moved just three days ago on May 7th, 2016 to a new home on the eastern side of Causeway Street in Portal Park.
To further honor the memory of the 1970 Stanley Cup-winning goal, the Bobby Orr statue will be moved in about three years to be used as the centerpiece for the entrance of the new complex, “The Hub On Causeway."
Traffic on the Zakim Bridge was backed up for miles while workers gingerly moved the statue. Nobody beeped their horns because Number 4 was going through the tunnel.
Paul Murphy
Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy
No comments:
Post a Comment