Bobby Orr Sides With Players In NHL Labor Dispute

Bobby Orr was one of the greatest hockey players to ever lace up the skates. Playing the majority of his NHL career with the Boston Bruins, Orr is known for having scored one of the most famous goals in the history of the game. On May 10, 1970, Orr scored an overtime game winning goal against the St. Louis Blues that helped the Bruins cap a sweep and give the franchise its’ first Stanley Cup Championship since 1941.

But long after his playing days, ones that saw him finish up his illustrious Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Blackhawks, Orr is still a part of the hockey players’ fraternity.

Of course, he is a player agent today and runs his own agency, so it is not that far of a stretch.

That is why Orr has spoken out in favor of the players in the NHL labor dispute that is in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.

“If we go back to the last collective bargaining agreement, the talk after that was, ‘Gee, the players really got beat on this one,’” Orr said Friday of the previous CBA. That agreement came after a lockout canceled the 2004-05 season. And if a new deal is not reached by the September 15 deadline and expiration date, we will be facing another lockout by the owners.

“So all of the sudden the owners have come back — I know they’re negotiating, they’re posturing and so on, but what they put out there, there’s no way the players can accept something like that,” Orr said.

In the end, many will side with the owners. Many will side with the players. All will say that each and every one of the people involved in this dispute already make entirely too much money.

But the bottom line is simple. If there is a lockout and time is missed, regardless of who is determined to have gotten the better of who in this situation, the biggest losers will once again be the fans.

“Players want their fair share, and that’s what it’s all about and I think it’s very unfair if fans — until they understand and see everything what’s out there — that they suggest that the players are being greedy,” Orr went on to say.

Fans will still feel as if both parties are being greedy, and in the end, whoever wins and whoever loses, at least terms of the financial aspects, the fans will lose the most because they will have to suffer through increasing ticket prices to make up for the loss of games.

Tags: Bobby Orr, NHL Labor Dispute, NHL Lockout