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Originally Posted by big_steve
If Orr & Lemieux both never had the horrible problems that they had to endure. I think pretty much all hockey experts would be calling this the top 3 hockey players of all-time(in order).
1. Bobby Orr
2. Mario Lemieux
3. Wayne Gretzky
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Ah...completely disagree! Perhaps an argument can be made in Bobby's case but definately not in Mario's case. Everybody knows that Mario never had the love for the game that the other two had and he was involved with all sorts of 'extra curricular' off ice activities...including being in the same room as Dan Quinn when he r-a-p-e-d a girl!!! And names like Tippet, Stevens, etc keep popping up around Lemieux...
You can argue that Lemieux was more naturally physically gifted than perhaps ALL others in history but, no, Lemieux would never have surpassed Gretzky in numbers, coming through in the clutch, consistancy, and in overall greatness.
Actually, if you use this argument of physical ailment, then you can argue that if that little @#$ Gary Suter didn't take out Wayne with that viscious cross check to the back and into the boards in '91 Canada Cup, Wayne would have gone on to greater heights!!! Because Wayne was never the same after that!!!
And to make matters worse, that same little !#@@ Gary Suter did pretty much the same thing all over again to little Paul Kariya, who was arguably the BEST player in the world at that time...and once again, as you can PLAINLY see by how he plays now, Kariya has never been the same after that either! Because prior to that hit, there were a couple seasons when Kariya flat out put his entire no-talent team on his small little back and carried them into the playoffs all by his lonesome! This guy could have turned out to be something really special if he was healthy...at least to the level of Forberg and Jagr and pretty likely greater...because even though younger than both, Kariya was playing at arguable higher level than these two at the time of the Suter hit.
So what am I trying to say? Perhaps the most important part of being great comes from being consistant. You cannot be consistant if you are unhealthy. Greatness comes from many, many factors all falling into place together at the same time.
And simply that Wayne Gretzky was the greatest hockey player of all time and neither Bobby Orr nor Mario Lemieux will ever change that! Perhaps one of the new kids may...Sidney Crosby? Ily Kovachuk? Rick Nash? Maybe, but I doubt it...
