My daughter Marja has been playing the #4 on her jersey for quite some time now and at least as a beer league player I proudly did so too. But why?

A Role Model

It basically boils down to the polaroid on the right. It was taken in 1980 and looking at the person on the right and the signature below anyone hockey-aware will immediately recognize one of the greatest hockey players of all time - Bobby Orr. And the boy on the left - well, guess who…

Bobby Orr really changed the game by the way he interpreted the role of a defender. No more chunky “stay-at-home and kill-the-opponent” defense, but a perfect skater, quick, with great hands and huge offensive power. To win the Art Ross Trophy as a defender, besides two Stanley Cups with the Boston Bruins tells a lot. And nine hat tricks in 657 NHL games is something most forwards probably seek but never achieve. As are 40+ goals within one season. You can see an analysis of the way he changed the defensive play in this video clip.

Additionally a few moments of his playing have been kept on film for example here and here, pretty well showing his abilities and outstanding skills.

Besides, what I personally remember from one week of Bobby working with us kids, was him being a charming person, trying to give us boys a sense of hockey, guiding us youth players to set our goals and work hard to achieve them. A real role model. And even if his coaching did not improve my hockey, his career and playing was a true inspiration for my later professional life and still has quite an impact on the way I coach my team nowadays.

And there’s still my kid playing the #4 jersey.

All photographs: IIHF Womens' U18 World Championships Div 1B, Katowice/POL, January 2020

Photo credits: B. Linzbichler