A national controversy that exploded before the 1972 Summit Series was practically forgotten in the emotion of Team Canada's win over the Soviet Union.
Canada's two biggest hockey stars in 1972 were the two Bobbys -- Hull and Orr -- and neither was able to play in what became the most important series in the country's sports history.
The controversy burst around only one of them, Bobby Hull, as Bobby Orr was unable to play because of one of the knee operations that were a familiar part of his relatively short National Hockey League career.
In September of 1972, Hull was the poster boy for the brand new World Hockey Association, which planned to wrestle the NHL for supremacy by raiding its players. NHL owners decreed that if Hull played in the Summit Series they would bar their players from participating and stuck to their guns in the face of a national outcry in Canada.
The fuss died down as Canadians became wrapped up in the series. After Team Canada stormed back to win, the argument of how much stronger the team would have been with Hull and Orr became somewhat moot.
But to this day, both players say that not being able to play in that first series against the Soviets was one of the biggest disappointments of their careers.
Dennis Hull offered to give up his place on the team to his brother but Bobby talked him out of it, probably because he realized the NHL owners were not going to bend.
There is a story that Alan Eagleson, the executive director of the NHL Players' Association, wanted Bobby Hull, who was actually named to the roster, to keep quiet about it in hopes the owners would accept him. But this version has many doubters.
Pressure was put on Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to twist NHL president Clarence Campbell's arm but nothing came of that, either.
Bobby Hull was travelling and unavailable to comment for this story, but he told Brian McFarlane, the author of Team Canada 1972: Where Are They Now?, that he is still angry about not playing.
"The biggest disappointment in my life was not being able to represent Canada in that 1972 series," Hull said. "I knew the Russians were good. I recall saying at the time they had a pretty good chance of winning. All those reports they couldn't skate, they had rotten goaltending -- I knew all that was a bunch of malarkey."
Hull did play against the Soviets two years later in a series with WHA players. But the WHA team was far weaker than the NHL squad and won only one of eight games.
Orr, though, can still look back and say he had his moment against the Soviets. In 1976, despite being hobbled by those aching knees, Orr was selected the most valuable player of the first Canada Cup tournament after Team Canada won the Summit Series. Hull, too, was allowed to play in that series.
"That was the only international experience of my career," Orr said yesterday at a charity hockey game that raised money to buy used equipment for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Canada. "Yeah, I was disappointed I couldn't play [in 1972]but I look at '76 as a highlight of my career."
Orr's success in 1976 also answered the question of whether his presence would have made it easier for Canada to win in 1972. His greatest gift as a defenceman was handling the puck and controlling the tempo of the game, something the Canadians desperately needed once they saw how good the Russians were.
Hull's strength as a player was rushing down the left wing and unloading the most fearsome slap shot in the game, something that probably would not have made as big a difference as the presence of Orr.
Orr actually made an attempt to play, skating briefly during training camp. But he realized quickly that he was not up to it. His knee was operated on in the spring of 1972, well before the common use of arthroscopic surgery and recuperation that could be measured in weeks, not months.
But even if he had been able to play, Orr said his presence would have been of no help.
"I was trying to play but the knee was not in good shape. With the calibre of hockey, I would have hurt the team. There was no way; I wasn't in shape. I wasn't going to help the team."
Just about all of Orr's teammates were not in shape, either, but once they realized how good the Russians were, he said, "they got in shape real fast."
Like his fellow players and many Canadians, Orr did not take the competition seriously at first. He admits scoffing at the Soviets shortly before they spotted Canada a 2-0 lead in Game 1 and then came back for a 7-3 win, setting off a national attack of angst.
"I don't think anybody took it seriously," Orr said. "I recall the scouting reports, that the goaltending wasn't very good. But no one put [the Soviet players]together. No one saw them play together.
"I remember their first practice in Montreal, some of us walked out of the rink chuckling. Then in the first game Frank [Mahovlich]scored, Phil [Esposito]scored, it was 2-0 and we thought, 'Here we go.' But then they started with the tic-tac-toe and we saw the real team."
Orr spent the entire series with the Canadian team and by the end, in Moscow, he had developed a deep respect for the Canadian players because they were able to recognize the need to quickly adopt a defensive game, beating the Soviets at home on the larger international ice.
"Watching that series, seeing what the guys went through, what that team did is in my mind one of the great feats in sports," Orr said. "To have to go over there and win three of four was really difficult."
Like Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak, Orr said he figured the game of hockey was just as much a winner as Team Canada.
"The Soviet team with the puck control, we learned a lot from that series. They didn't dump the puck in, and the goalie went behind the net to get it [when Canada dumped it in]
"Here's a team that had great passing, positional play and puck control and our guys adjusted. You think about that, the adjustment they had to make. They said, 'Hey, guys, we have to change,' and they did."