The Iconic Goal: Bobby Orr's 1970 Stanley Cup Triumph

On May tenth, nineteen seventy, Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins makes the final goal of Game four in the Stanley Cup Finals to beat the Saint Louis Blues and win the Stanley Cup in one of the most famous photos of all time where it looks like he's flying in celebration. And today we're gonna go back to the story behind how all this happened on Daily Sports History. Before we dribble into today's episode, let's shoot some love for our sponsor, Sports Social Pro. If your team's social media presence as empty as the bleachers at a preseason game, I fear not. We're here to bring the fans roaring back, whether you need a full court press or just a halftime pep talk. Check us out at Daily Sports History, Com, slash social, and let's slam dunk your social media game. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. Bobby Orr is arguably one of the greatest NHL players of all time and without question is the greatest scoring defenseman to ever play the game. And he was a child prodigy great with the skates and recruited back when he was a teenager and was so highly touted. His rookie year in the NHL, he had the highest paid contract in the whole league, which helped many other players garner higher paydays as well, and in nineteen sixty six he finally joined the Boston Bruin, changing their fortune around and helping lead them into a powerhouse in the NHL for multiple years. But the nineteen sixty nine nineteen seventy season is when he went from stardom to legend. He won the James Norris Trophy, given out to the best defensive player in the NFL, eight years in a row, and in nineteen seventy he truly came out as having one of the greatest seasons of all time. Not only did he weigh the James Norris Trophy for the third straight year, he won the art Ross Trophy, given to the player that has the most points in the league, the Hart Trophy, given to the most valuable player in the league, and the Con Smythe Trophy given to the MVP of the playoffs. Now the season four, now, the sixty to nine season may seem like it would have been great, but it was largely dominated by the Eastern Division, as the West Division only had one team with a winning record, and that was the Saint Louis Blues, who worked their way easily through the playoffs, beeding the Minnesota Stars in six games and beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games as well. But the Boston Bruins had a great season. They finished second in the East Division, just behind the Chicago Blackhawks, and now the six teams in the Eastern Division, five of them had winning records and they were facing better teams, But that doesn't mean they had more of a challenge to make it too with the Stanley Cups, as they lost two games in the first round to the New York Rangers and would not lose another game, sweeping the Chicago Blackhawks in four games to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. Now, that season they were Harry Sedin, who'd been coaching the team the entire time Bobby Orr was on the team. The leader on the team that year in goals was not actually Bobby, as it was Phil Esposito, another great hockey player for the Boston Bruins, but the leader in assist points, penalty minutes was all Bobby Orr in Game one in Game two were fantastic games if you were Boston Bruins, as they outscored the Saint Louis Blues twelve to three in those first games, being led and scoring in those games by Johnny Buck and Derek Sanderson, scoring six points in each game. Now, Game three was a little bit more of a closer amount, only winning four to one back in Boston. Coming into Game four at the Boston at the Boston Garden with the Bruins leading the series three to zero, only needing one more game to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in almost thirty years, but the Blues weren't ready to go home quite yet. After the Blues scored with the Rick Smith goal with about five minutes into the game. The Bruins countered in that first period, with Red Bernerson tying the game at the end of the first period, and then in the second period, the Bruins take the lead two to one, but Phil Esposito comes back at this end of the second period and makes his very first goal of the entire series, But just nineteen seconds into the third period, the Saint Louis Blues take the lead again and win seven minutes. With almost six minutes left in the third period, the Boston Bruins tie the game and the game would go into overtime. Just forty seconds into the overtime period, the Blues could bare the keep the puck in their own zone. They dumped the puck to the Bruins blue line, and Bobby Or picked up the loose puck and skated it all the way to the red line, dumping it back in the Saint Louis zone, where Wayne Carlton took possession for the Bruins and shoveled the puck into the slot, where it bounced around before eventually clearing to the point where don Ari sent a slap shot towards the goal, where it got blocked. The puck bounced to the right side of the board, where Or stopped stopped short, corralling the puck, and the Saint Louis defenseman took a shot at the puck with no avail and orgedd the puck to Derek Sanderson, who passed it to Bobby Or while he was right in front of the net, and tapped the puck into the net, passing the goaldie, winning the game into just forty seconds into overtime, but as he did this, a defenceman had swiped to try to stop the puck hitting Bobby or skates, sending him flying through the air as he was going full speed, and the picture was taken as you see him with his hands raised, cheering, flying as it looks like he is flying, and the fans in the stands all cheering as well as they had just won the Stanley Cup and Bobby Orr is flying in celebration, making his only goal of the entire series, but making it one of the most memorable moments in all of hockey history thanks to the famous picture that will always be remembered. Following the amazing season he had and winning the Stanley Cup two years later, he would be rewarded with a five year contract worth two hundred thousand dollars a year. In today's money, that would be about one point five million dollars and it made it the very first million dollar contract in NHL history. And Bobby deserves his own episode, probably even more than one, as we just mentioned a few of his accolades, as he was the eight time winner of the James Norris Trophy, the two time winner the Art Ross Trophy, the only defenseman to ever win that award, a three time winner of the Heart Memorial Trophy, a two time winner of the con Smythe Trophy, and won the Stanley Cup again in nineteen seventy two, as well as winning a gold medal in the nineteen seventy six Olympics. In nineteen seventy nine, the Boston Bruins retired his number four jersey and he was inducted that same year into the Hockey Hall of Fame, being the youngest to ever be inducted at only the age of thirty one. We all know about the great One in hockey, but no defenseman has ever been as good as Bobby Orr was in his short twelve year NHL career. We may never ever see another like him, and it just goes to show you just because your title may be one thing, it doesn't mean that's who you are or that defines you. You can be whoever you want to be. Defenceman don't normally score that much or have many points in hockey, that doesn't mean you can't be a great defensive player. Even if you're a defenceman or whatever position you are, you can be great and more than just one thing, and for me, I think it'd be great to hear from you guys. If there's a story or topic you would love for us to talk about, you can connect with us on all our socials Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterests, Facebook, Instagram, all the places where you socialize, We are there and we'd love to hear from you if there's any topic you want