Penguins Retro: Bobby Orr’s Knuckle Sandwich

I decided to step into the WABAC machine for one last stroll down memory lane.

As a kid growing up in Bethel Park, PA, I was an avid baseball and basketball fan. In fact, I paid little attention to hockey until I was in my teens.

When I was 15 years old, I had an emergency appendectomy. During my hospital stay one of the TV networks happened to televise a Penguins-Bruins game. The thing I remembered most was a big brawl involving two of our players, Duane Rupp and Darryl Edestrand, which inspired the following piece.

Hooked a brand-new hockey fan, too.

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Perhaps no player in the annals of hockey history had a more profound influence on the game than former Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr. Prior to Orr’s arrival, defensemen rarely ventured into the attacking zone. Thanks to his incredible speed and supreme offensive skills, Orr made daring end-to-end rushes seem routine. Starting from behind his own net, he’d shift into top gear in a matter of strides. Then he literally flew past opposing checkers, leaving them in his vapor trail like a collection of lampposts.

While he often operated as a fourth forward, Orr also was a very capable defender. Far from one-dimensional, the 5’11” 185-pounder hit and blocked shots and did the dirty work in his own end.

“He’s the perfect hockey player,” marveled his coach/GM Harry Sinden. “Gordie Howe could do everything, but not at top speed. Bobby Hull went at top speed but couldn’t do everything. The physical aspect is absent from Wayne Gretzky’s game. Orr would do everything, and do it at top speed.”

Orr was surprisingly tough for a superstar. Late in his rookie season, the 18-year-old phenom raised eyebrows when he beat up Montreal’s rugged Ted Harris, regarded as one of the top fighters in the league. Over the years he enhanced his reputation as a player not to be trifled with by scoring decisions over penalty kings Keith Magnuson and our own Bryan “Bugsy” Watson.

When the Penguins visited Beantown for a nationally televised game on February 10, 1973, the three-time Hart Trophy winner was at the very peak of his abilities. Fresh off a second Stanley Cup victory in three years, he and “the Big, Bad Bruins” figured to make short work of the Pens, who were struggling to keep pace in the playoff chase.

Most teams were intimidated before they ever set foot on the Boston Gardens ice. However, the Pens were a spirited bunch. Determined to give a good showing, they did not go down quietly. After Lowell MacDonald and Boston’s Phil Esposito opened the second period with a pair of rapid-fire goals, the action heated up.

On the ensuing rush, Esposito began pushing and shoving with Pens blue-liner Duane Rupp. They shed their sticks and gloves and engaged in a brief skirmish, with Rupp dropping the Bruins’ scoring ace to his knees with a right.

As players from both sides grabbed a man, Orr paired off with Darryl Edestrand. Little did he realize he’d picked one tough nut for his dance partner.

Orr decided to test the second-year defender, popping him on the chin with a half-hearted jersey jab.

It was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. In an instant Edestrand lashed out, catching Orr flush with a bolt of a right hand. Stunned, the Bruins’ superstar could do little more than cover up as Edestrand tore into him with a savage volley of lightning-fast rights. Realizing Orr was in big trouble, Don Awrey tackled his teammate’s assailant to set off a wild donnybrook at center ice.

Predictably, the Bruins beat the Pens, 6-3, that afternoon. But the blue-and-white had put their mettle on full display by battling an infinitely stronger and tougher foe.

For Orr, it was the first blemish on his previously spotless fight card. Edestrand, meanwhile, had made an impression. Eight months later, the Bruins acquired his services for Nick Beverley. Darryl occasionally partnered with the man he’d bested in the punch-up.

Orr, too, would cross-pollinate. After a tragic string of injuries ravaged his knees and forced a premature end to his Hall-of-Fame career, he served as a special instructor at the Pens’ training camps in the early 1980s as a favor to his best friend and former Bruins teammate, Eddie Johnston.