Hockey: Orr and Lemieux
Lemieux accomplished numbers quite comparable to Gretzky while playing with what was a losing team from his rookie year until 1991. The Penguins made the playoffs just once in Lemieux's first 7 seasons, but Lemieux put up unbelievable numbers still. While Gretzky benefited early in his career from playing with the likes of Kurri, Coffey, Messier, Anderson and Lowe...Lemieux played with the likes of Rob Brown, Bob Errey, Warren Young, Dan Quinn and Randy Cunneyworth. Lemieux finished his career with more goals per game, and more playoff goals per game than Gretzky.
Bobby Orr was the first defenceman to lead the NHL in scoring, the first to score 100 points in a season and the first to record 100 assists in a season. No defenseman besides Orr has ever led the league in assists; he did it five times. Not only was Orr the first defenseman to record 100 assists in a season, he was the first player to do so period. Orr changed how the position was played like no one else had before him.
|