Once, when asked what his role was in getting Bobby to the pros, Doug Orr, his father, replied, “Nothing.” Bobby says he hit the jackpot with his parents, who let him find his own way in the sport, emphasizing that the important thing in life was to be a decent person. Doug Orr was a good enough hockey player that he once was invited to the training camp of Boston Bruins’ farm team, but he elected to join the Royal Canadian Navy instead. Bobby calls his mother, who saw him play only five or six games, a tower of strength from a distance. Whenever the hockey-minded customers at a local coffee shop where she worked would ask, “How’s your son,” her stock answer was, “Which one? We have three.”
SAL VEDER/AP
