On May 10, 1970, after 40 seconds of overtime in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, Boston Bruins star Bobby Orr slipped the winning goal past St. Louis Blues goaltender Glenn Hall. After scoring, Orr leaps into the air before landing flat and sliding into the embrace of his teammates. The famous celebration is immortalized by Boston Record-American photographer Ray Lussier, whose image of the Orr glider is one of the most famous sports photographs of all time.
In Boston sporting tradition, the winner of the Orr game, which made the Bruins the NHL champions, is known as “The Goal.”
Boston Bruins’ Bobby Orr soars after scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal against the St. Louis Blues in 1970.
Ray Lussier / MediaNews Group / Boston American Record via Getty Images
Going for the goal, Orr, a defenseman, made an ultra-aggressive play that could have left the Bruins vulnerable to a counterattack. Bruins defenseman Derek Sanderson, who assisted on the goal, recalled it in Eric Zweig’s 2010 book, Twenty most beautiful hockey goals:
“Have you seen the way [Orr] played to start this game? No other defender would have risked so much in an overtime game. But for Orr, with his natural talent and great anticipation, it wasn’t a gamble.
Hall, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975, joked that he “got out of the shower and dried off before Bobby hit the ice.” In an interview with NHL.com in 2017, Hall said he ranked Orr tied with Gordie Howe as the greatest player in NHL history.
During his 12-year NHL career, Orr has been on the All-Star Team nine times. He also won two Stanley Cups and led the league five times in assists and twice in points. In 1979, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Lussier died in 1991 at the age of 59. “He knew his stuff,” brother-in-law Roger Avery said in a 2010 interview with L’Aigle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.
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