A young Bobby Orr, wearing #27 you will note, listens to the advice of coach Harry Sinden.Orr wore #27 in his first NHL training camp in 1966, and changed to his familiar #4 once the season started. This would mean this pre-season game against the Rangers was one of the earliest tastes of NHL action for Bobby Orr.
Sinden, too, was a rookie in this photo, just embarking on what would prove to be a very long NHL career as a coach and later manager.
I can't help but think how lucky we were to have Sinden coaching Boston at the same time Orr arrived. So many coaches would have tried to break a young stallion like Orr, who played a very different game than everyone else. They would have tried to make him conform. But Sinden knew he had something special in Orr. And he also knew to maximize Orr's potential, he had to let Orr run free. He had to let Orr play the game, like all the great players play the game, by instinct.
Thank you Bobby Orr, but also thank you, Harry Sinden.
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The photo showing Harry Sinden talking to Bobby Orr in his #27 jersey with the New York Rangers in the background was taken at the Memorial Centre in Kingston, Ontario in the Fall of 1966. The Rangers had held their training camp in Kingston and this game was their first pre-season game. I was at the game. (I probably still have my ticket stub stashed away in my junk drawer). Orr was the best player on the ice that night but the Rangers won.
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