On May 10, 1970, 40 seconds into overtime of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final, Boston Bruins star Bobby Orr slips the winning goal past St. Louis Blues goaltender Glenn Hall. After scoring, Orr leaps into the air before landing flat and sliding into his teammates’ embrace. The famous celebration is immortalized by Boston Record-American photographer Ray Lussier, whose image of the soaring Orr is one of the most famous sports photographs of all time.
In Boston sports lore, Orr’s game-winner, which made the Bruins NHL champions, is known as “The Goal.”
Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins soars after scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal against the St. Louis Blues in 1970.
Ray Lussier/MediaNews Group/Boston Record American via Getty Images
In going for the goal, Orr, a defensemen, made an ultra-aggressive play that could have left the Bruins susceptible against a counterattack. Bruins defensemen Derek Sanderson, who assisted on the goal, recalled it in Eric Zweig’s 2010 book, Twenty Greatest Hockey Goals:
“Did you see the way [Orr] gambled to start that play? No other defenseman would have risked so much in an overtime game. But for Orr, with his natural talent and great anticipation, it was no gamble.”
Hall, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975, joked that he was “out of the shower and dried off before Bobby hit the ice.” In a 2017 interview with NHL.com, Hall said he ranked Orr in a tie with Gordie Howe as the greatest player in NHL history.
In his 12-year NHL career, Orr was a nine-time all-star. He also won two Stanley Cups, and led the league in assists five times and in points twice. In 1979, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Lussier died in 1991 at age 59. “He knew his business,” brother-in-law Roger Avery said in a 2010 interview with The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.
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