Sunday is the 50th anniversary of Boston Bruins star Bobby Orr’s championship-clinching goal against the St. Louis Blues in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final. Unsurprisingly, it’s a moment that has been commemorated in a statue that stands near the TD Garden in Boston.
That got us to thinking: What are some other iconic moments in hockey history that deserve to be immortalized in statue form?
Here are our picks, ranging from international glory to elite-level trolling:
Ray Bourque raises the Stanley Cup
The 22-year veteran raises the Cup for the first time in his career. After a Game 7 clincher vs. the New Jersey Devils in 2001, Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic breaks tradition to give Bourque the Cup first. — Sach Chandan
Byfuglien rag-dolls two Golden Knights
Dustin Byfuglien is the NHL’s greatest bouncer pic.twitter.com/kdedKWIQvn
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 17, 2018
Why is this statue-worthy? Because Dustin Byfuglien is one of the game’s true beauties: reclusive, adored, feared and absolutely a joy to watch. With his size (Big Buff was modestly listed at 6-foot-5, 260 pounds). he overwhelmed every opponent. I remember this same playoff series in 2018, Alex Tuch (6-foot-4, 222 pounds) once tried to hip check Byfuglien and bounced off him like rubber. Byfuglien was also a beloved teammate; Nikolaj Ehlers once described him to me like this: “He’s a great guy. Crazy. But everyone loves him.” This image — Byfuglien manhandling two Golden Knights, plucking them out of a scrum and dragging them away, like he’s a bouncer at the club — takes place in Byfuglien’s final great playoff run, in 2018, with the Jets. I could think of no better moment to encapsulate the Big Buff experience. — Emily Kaplan
Zdeno Chara lifts the Stanley Cup in 2011
This photo encompasses two aspects of hockey that I adore. The first is the notion that hockey should be scary. Like, it should sometimes frighten you in a way that tennis or baseball can’t. Chara is a 6-foot-9 bruiser who carries a hockey stick the size of an elm tree and can end you with one punch. But the second aspect is the way even the scariest hockey players are overcome by the emotion of hoisting the Stanley Cup, and the catharsis that comes with it. In a sense, then, it’s the perfect hockey image. — Greg Wyshynski
It’s the moment that Crosby became a true hockey giant and kicked off his reign as the best player of the 2010s. The goal is reminiscent of the 1987 Canada Cup-winning goal by Mario Lemieux (from Wayne Gretzky) over the Soviets, which is all too perfect considering Crosby and Lemieux’s already intertwined history. Put it right in downtown Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, mounted on a pedestal and made to look like the beat-up Crosby family dryer. Or in Vancouver, British Columbia. Either will do. — Pierre Becquey
Plain and simple, Hasek needs a damn statue. I considered his aggressive sliding pokecheck with Detroit that catapulted Wild forward Marian Gaborik end over end, but as iconic as it might be, it was a dangerous play. So instead, how about his flopping, contorting save on Doug Weight from his Buffalo days? It represents everything we loved about his style of play and how he never gave up on the puck. — Ben Arledge
Braden Holtby makes ‘The Save’ in 2018 Cup Final
The Golden Knights were up 1-0 in the series but down 3-2 with two minutes left in Game 2. Alex Tuch was set up for a wide-open one-timer in front of the net with Holtby caught on the far side. But Holtby reached back and extended his stick to get a critical save to help even the series. The Capitals would go on to win their first Cup in franchise history, thanks in part to Holtby’s heroics. — Sach Chandan
The Stanley Cup of hot dogs
Phil Kessel loves hot dogs! (Or does he?) After winning his second straight Stanley Cup in 2017, Kessel took a shot at Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons by filling the Cup on the golf course full of hot dogs. Simmons shared a since-debunked anecdote in a column that claimed Kessel ordered from the same hot dog stand daily while playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The column also launched a popular segment on the ESPN On Ice podcast. A fitting tribute to a real American hero. — Chris Peters
Wayne Gretzky to Mario Lemieux to win the 1987 Canada Cup
It was the last time the mighty Soviet Union and Canada disputed world hockey supremacy as the two true hockey superpowers, and it remains an iconic goal featuring two of hockey’s greatest players of all time. Put it out right in front of Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre, then known as the Copps Coliseum, which played host to that final game. — Pierre Becquey
With a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7, the New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. Messier provided perhaps the most lasting image from the championship — though Mike Richter‘s penalty-shot save might have something to say about that — as he iconically leaped up and down as the ticker tape fell at Madison Square Garden. “The Captain” provided the game winner, his 12th goal of the ’94 playoff run. — Ben Arledge
Ovechkin gets goofy at the 2009 NHL All-Star Game
At the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, Alex Ovechkin donned a goofy hat with a Canadian flag in it, large sunglasses and grabbed two hockey sticks for an attempt in the Breakaway Challenge. There may be no image that better captures the goofball side of Ovechkin, which has always undercut so many critics of his personality. (Especially in those early-career comparisons to Sidney Crosby.) That he put the puck in the net during this fashion show also makes it Peak Ovechkin. — Greg Wyshynski
Willie O’Ree breaks down a barrier
O’Ree made his NHL debut as an injury replacement for the Bruins during a January game in 1958. Some athletes brag about being able to block out the outside noise. Perhaps nobody achieved it better than O’Ree, who was just 22. “When I stepped on the ice with the Bruins, it did not dawn on me that I was breaking the color barrier,” O’Ree said in his 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame acceptance speech. “That’s how focused I was on making my dream come true. I did not realize I had made history until I read it in the paper the next day.” Since then, O’Ree has become an icon in the game. He has mentored nearly every black NHL player, and he has been an ambassador for the league, traveling throughout North America to share lessons about inclusion. He has done it all with grace. It’s a shame it took this long to get O’Ree into the Hall of Fame. Missing out on giving him a statue would be another mistake. — Emily Kaplan
‘The Goal’ by Alex Ovechkin
So many statues stand triumphantly overlooking the vast landscape. But if Ovechkin was to have a statue, it should be of the signature moment of his career — the sliding-on-his-back goal against the Arizona Coyotes in 2006. Ovechkin will have a statue in D.C. no matter what — and it would probably be his toothless Stanley Cup raise — but this was the moment in which Ovechkin truly captivated the hockey world. How is it that the biggest stars always seem to generate the best highlights? This also might be a case where we’d need a platform next to the statue so we could look down upon it. If you want to encapsulate the exuberance, the sheer insanity and the endearing lack of convention of your franchise’s most famous player, this is the play to freeze in time. — Chris Peters