The name Colton Orr
doesn’t ring out as one of the franchise players for the playoff bound Toronto
Maple Leafs. That tag falls to names
like top scorers Nazem Kadri and Phil Kessel.
That said, with the Leafs breaking out of a nine year playoff drought,
Colton Orr is a large part of the shift in team identity that put the Blue and
White back into the hunt for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
With the 2012-13 NHL
Regular Season in the books, Toronto holds the most penalty minutes in the
NHL. That mark is powered by a runaway
lead in the major penalty category, 46 through 48 games. The next closets teams are Philadelphia and
Columbus, both standing at 35 majors through 48 contests. Breaking it down even further, three players
consistently contribute to that major mark in Frazer McLaren, Mark Fraser and…
Colton Orr.
“We wanted to be hard
to play against,” said Orr, the NHL’s penalty minutes leader. “We were doing the little things a lot more
and you could tell in our game when teams come to play us it’s going to be a
long night. We really make sure that we
come to work.”
A team’s work ethic and
toughness goes far beyond willingness to drop the gloves in the heat of the
battle, but the Leafs’ combativeness is certainly part of that lunch-bucket
mantra. Orr is no stranger to playing in
an environment that demands a strong work ethic. His journey to the NHL started its Major
Junior roots with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos before moving to the Kamloops
Blazers and finally landing in the Queen City with the Regina Pats for the
2002-03 season.
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| Photo Credit: The Globe and Mail |
