Bobby Orr’s career statistics are misleading in that they show the performance of a player competing against a league with a talent pool and athletic abilities at an all-time low. Below are Bobby Orr’s career statistics for the era he played in, followed by an adjusted set of career stats derived from a sophisticated computer simulation showing what Orr’s stats would have looked like if instead of playing from 1966/67 to 1978/79, he played from 1994/95 to 2006/2007. We’ve assumed Orr would play the same number of games each year, ignored the 94/95 lockout, and used the 04/05 lockout as Orr’s year of inactivity. The results are not surprising.
Orr’s misleading “actual” stats:
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966-67 | Boston | 61 | 13 | 28 | 41 | 102 |
| 1967-68 | Boston | 46 | 11 | 20 | 31 | 63 |
| 1968-69 | Boston | 67 | 21 | 43 | 64 | 133 |
| 1969-70 | Boston | 76 | 33 | 87 | 120 | 125 |
| 1970-71 | Boston | 78 | 37 | 102 | 113 | 91 |
| 1971-72 | Boston | 76 | 37 | 80 | 117 | 106 |
| 1972-73 | Boston | 63 | 29 | 72 | 101 | 99 |
| 1973-74 | Boston | 74 | 32 | 90 | 122 | 82 |
| 1974-75 | Boston | 80 | 46 | 89 | 135 | 101 |
| 1975-76 | Boston | 10 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 22 |
| 1976-77 | Chicago | 20 | 4 | 19 | 23 | 25 |
| 1977-78 | Did Not Play | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1978-79 | Chicago | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Totals | Bos/Chi | 657 | 279 | 645 | 915 | 953 |
Orr’s accurate stats as adjusted by a sophisticated computer algorithm:
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994/95 | Boston | 61 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 140 |
| 1995/96 | Boston | 46 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 105 |
| 1996/97 | Boston | 67 | 2 | 11 | 13 | 155 |
| 1997/98 | Boston | 76 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 170 |
| 1998/99 | Boston | 78 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 142 |
| 1999/00 | Boston | 76 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 137 |
| 2000/01 | Boston | 63 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 214 |
| 2001/02 | Boston | 74 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 167 |
| 2002/03 | Boston | 80 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 162 |
| 2003/04 | Boston | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 24 |
| 2004/05 | Did Not Play | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2005/06 | Chicago | 20 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 44 |
| 2006/07 | Chicago | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 15 |
| Totals | Bos/Chi | 657 | 37 | 91 | 128 | 1475 |
The simulation makes it quite clear. Orr’s goals and assists dropped dramatically due to not being able to keep up with the speed or skill of today’s far superior players, and his penalty minutes increased noticeably, due to increased calls for interference, hooking, tripping, and other penalties taken trying to illegally stop players who outperformed him on the ice.