from Colin Fleming of Sports Illustrated,

Orr’s teams underachieved, in the sense that they never became dynastic. Instead, they had a run of two Cups in three years. A run is different than a bona fide dynasty of the kind the Canadiens had, and the go-go-go pace of the regular season, with Orr’s headlong, driving rushes down the ice and his mad scurries back towards his own end, to dispossess a rusher of the puck, might have had something to do with it.

That aforementioned forward would be caught unawares, the biscuit would no longer be his, and Orr would be swiftly headed towards the attacking zone, seemingly all in one motion. Thrilling. And unlike anything you would ever see at the rink. But, so was, on its whole, Ray Bourque’s career.

Bourque was Boston’s other great defenseman, a magisterial, super smooth stalwart who nonetheless has always been cloaked in a touch of shadow. Everyone agrees that Gretzky, Orr, Lemieux, and Howe, in some order, are the four best players in league history. But even an Orr-lover could argue that Bourque’s career, on balance, as a guy you’d want to have around for 20 years as your team’s benchmark, puts him in a discussion for the fifth best player. And if you had a choice of Orr’s career, or Bourque’s, and you were a GM who was like the overlord on high, picking teams to do battle for all time from your misty mountain, you could well go with Bourque rather than the vaunted #4.

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