A great story about the smarts of Vic Hadfield. They were playing the Bruins circa 1967 or 1968. Bobby Orr was carrying the puck out of his own end on one of his patented rushes. Hadfield was still skating around the Bruins blue line and yelled out, "Hey Bobby." Orr, thinking that it was a teammate calling for a pass, blindly backpassed it. Hadfield skated unencumbered on Giacomin and scored an easy breakaway goal. Orr never did that again.
Unless my memory has badly failed me, that sounds like a highly improbable occurrence.
He holds the career goals (406) and points (1021) records for the Rangers
That's what made Bobby Orr so great. I hope he was awarded an assist when Hadfield scored on Giacomin.
He had movie star looks.
No. When Hadfield called out Bobby's name, Orr back passed to him without looking. Hadfield took the pass and walked in and scored on Giacomin. We must remember that this took place in 1966-1967, Orr's first year in the NHL.
Just curious - as far as I know Ed Giacomin (and according to hockeydb.com) never played goal for the Bruins - so how did his Ranger teammate (Vic Hadfield) manage to score on him after Bobby Orr passed him the puck unless Hadfield skated the length of the ice and scored on his own goal? Which very likely would have taken Ed Giacomin completely by surprise.
