A man considered to be one of the greatest defencemen of all time, and one of the best players in NHL history, will be at the Art Hauser Centre on Saturday, October 22 sharing stories of his career and thoughts on the game he dominated for so long.
Ray Bourque will be the principal speaker at the Prince Albert Raiders and Kinsmen Sportsman Dinner.
During his playing career, Bourque was a 22-year veteran of the NHL with five Norris Trophy wins to his credit as the NHL’s best defenceman, a Stanley Cup championship with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001, and 19 end-of-season all star team appearances. Since his retirement, Bourque has shared stories from that hallowed career as a guest speaker at numerous events.
“I like to get engaged when I speak,” Bourque said. “For me, what’s happening on Saturday night, hot stoving it and telling stories and just being asked on maybe my philosophy on certain things, being engaged in that way, that’s how I like to do it.”
Telling stories is no trouble for a man who has so many of them to tell. His NHL career began in 1979-80, when he scored in his first NHL game and kept on rolling from there. He won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, and was named a first-team all star.
“I couldn’t think of a better way to start,” Bourque said. “If you had asked me at the beginning of the year about my goal, I would have said it was to make the team and be a productive player. Things went great right off the bat and it was a lot of fun.”
Though they never won the Stanley Cup, Bourque’s Bruins teams were a force to be reckoned with for the next decade. They appeared in the finals twice and even got some playoff revenge on the Montreal Canadiens, a team that Bourque had cheered for as a child.
“You’d go back in the summers and have everybody give you hell because you couldn’t beat Montreal for the longest time in the playoffs,” Bourque said. “Then in 87-88, going back in the summer and having the quietest summer I’ve ever had because we finally beat Montreal in the playoffs and from that point on did OK against them in the playoffs.”
Massachusetts is home for Bourque and his family now, and he’s still a big fan of the Bruins, but there came a time where he had to leave the Bruins in pursuit of a Stanley Cup. In the back half of the 1999-2000 season, Bourque was traded to the Avalanche.
“I never thought I would ask for a trade,” Bourque said. “I thought I would finish my days in Boston. But at that point in time, it was really affecting me mentally and my game and I needed to know, I was 38 years old and I needed to know if there was anything left in the tank. I wanted to go somewhere where I could compete.”
Bourque called the Avalanche of the time the most talented team he had ever played with, and while they fell in the Western Conference Finals that season, he came back for one more shot with that group. It paid off big time. The team won the President’s Trophy in the regular season, followed by a Stanley Cup victory, complete with finals comeback over the New Jersey Devils.
In that series, the Avs fell down 3-2 before beating New Jersey 4-0 in game six and 3-1 in game seven to secure their second Stanley Cup. Captain Joe Sakic handed the cup straight to Bourque in what many consider one of the most iconic moments in Stanley Cup history.
“Going into Jersey down 3-2, nobody was giving us a chance to beat the defending Champs,” Bourque said. “That sixth game, coming back home, winning at home, hoisting the cup and having Joe do what he did was amazing for all of us, my family and I.”
Despite several of his old teammates finding success in the game after their playing careers (including Sakic) Bourque said he has no itch to get back into the game as a manager or coach. He watches now as a fan, and he’s quite content to do so.
“Everything changes a little bit I think, because everything evolves,” he said. “The game itself, the position (of defence) kind of stays the same, just everything gets better. Hockey is hockey, but like everything in life, it keeps getting better.”
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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com
On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP
