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Just to play devil's advocate, Orr played in a lower scoring era than Gretzky and Lemieux. In the C&B article I linked before, Orr's adjusted PPG is 1.33 which is only a slight drop to his actual number, but Lemieux (1.66) and Gretzky (1.61) both lose more. Orr isn't really in this discussion, though. It's true that he changed the position as people saw it, but I don't believe "most influential" is a factor in being GOAT or we'd be talking about Patrick Roy. Or Jacques Plante. Or Stan Mikita. Gretzky was on the TV broadcast when the Oilers were playing the Devils earlier in the season and said pretty much this. When comparing the game today to when he (and Ken Daneko) were playing, he said, "It's a little different in the sense that the players are bigger, they're faster, the equipment is better... I think all in all, the players of today's age, the skill level's just at a different level."

An 81 today from the back tees. I was whining all day about the terrible play, but then I realized that would have killed to have an 81 from any tee a few years ago. All is good.

Today, in less-than-ideal conditions, I shot 45-47 for a 92. I had a stretch of seven bogeys in a row on the toughest stretch on the course (6-12), where there’s only one ‘breather’ hole, the last hole in that stretch. My iron play was the best it’s been in a while, and I had at least a par putt on 15 holes, four of those inside three feet, but I couldn’t make a thing.  I only hit one truly disappointing shot today. On the par-3 17th, I pulled a 7I about forty feet left of the green and ended up with triple, having a restricted backswing on my chip shot. But otherwise, a pretty fair day in wet/rainy conditions. I gave myself a chance to make some putts, which I’m really pleased about.

They also face goalies who stop a ton more shots. Orr was good but he also, like Jack Nicklaus, played against weaker competition. I absolutely think Karlsson and Drew Doughty and other defensemen in the NHL could do what Bobby Orr did. Players are better athletes all around these days. The best defensemen right now is quite likely a better hockey player than the best in 1975. Not guaranteed, but likely.

Here are two things we now know to be true: The odds of getting COVID-19 from a surface is incredibly small. The odds of getting COVID-19 outdoors from brief encounters (a few minutes, even) with other people is incredibly small. I think people are under the quite false impression that if you get one "viral particle" on you, you can become infected. The number appears to be at least 1000.