Ray Bourque one of the All Time
Greats
I have to
say through the years the Boston Bruins have been a very consistent bunch. I
have followed them and enjoyed their play since 1979 when my favorite Bruin of
all time started his illustrious career. The classy Ray Bourque was drafted in
the 1st round 8th overall in the 1979 draft. A little known fact was that Harry Sinden
stole him. He traded backup goaltender Ron Grahame to the LA Kings in 1977 for
the LA Kings first round pick. Think LA would have loved to have Bourque play
with Marcel Dionne and then eventually Wayne Gretzky? Although it is unfair for
the fans to expect him to be the next Bobby Orr, Bourque came on the scene and
scored 17 goals with 48 assists for 65 points. This was at the time was a
rookie for defenseman, that Larry Murphy eventually broke in 80-81 with 76
points. Bourque had excellent speed as
an 18 year old but what was most amazing was his ability to be good in his own
end. Bourque with that blistering shot
helped the PP as soon as he got there. Each year Bourque got better, Scoring
usually about 20 goals and 70 points. In 1982-1983 the Bruins had a very good
team winning 50 games with 110 points. Pete Peeters was tremendous winning 40
games 2.36 GAA and the Vezina Trophy. The Bruins were led by a tremendous group of
forwards that had both grit and skill.
The famous Barry Peterson (46 goals 107 points), Rick Middleton 49 goals
96 points and Mike Krushelnyski (23 goals and 65 points) line led the team. The
Bruins had 8 guys have 20 plus goals. Keith Crowder had a career year with 35
goals and 74 points as well. Once the
playoffs came around many though this team could get to the Stanley Cup Finals.
They fell a bit short of that but it was no fault of Bourques. Bourque had 8 goals and 23 points in only 17
games. He really was maturing as a player. The NY Islanders beat Boston in 6 and won
their 4th Stanley Cup in a row that season beating the Edmonton
Oilers. The next season was an excellent
one for Bourque. Bourque set career
highs with 31 goals and 96 points. This is tremendous for any player, but especially
a defenseman. The Bruins however had
playoff disappointments and seemed to always lose to Montreal in those
years.
Two things
changed all of that. First was another fleecing trade by Harry Sinden in 1986.
The Bruins traded Barry Pederson to Vancouver for Cam Neely and the Canucks
first round pick in 1987, which turned out to be Glen Wesley. Pederson after 3 tremendous seasons in Boston
had an injury. He had some decent seasons for the Canucks but was not like he
was in Boston. Cam Neely however came to Boston and was a fantastic Bruin from
the get go. He scored 36 goals in his
first season with Boston and then 42 in his 2nd. 1987-1988 was one of the best overall seasons
for Bourque both on and off the ice.
Remember when Bourque came into the league Harry Sinden gave him #7.
Bourque never felt comfortable with 7 but wore it well. Phil Esposito a Hall of
Famer in his own right, wore #7 for the Bruins from 1967-1975. On December 3, 1987 the Bruins were finally
going to retire Esposito’s number. Espo was expecting to see #7 up in the
Garden rafters but Bourque would continue to wear it. Bourque being probably
the most classy respectful player in all of sports, decided to give Esposito
his sweater #7 and surprisingly changed to #77.
This was probably the most speechless Espo ever was. It ranks to me one of the warmest moments ever
I have seen in sports. Bourque wore 77
the rest of his career. Now 1987-1988
was good for many other reasons too. The Bruins went on a nice run in the
playoffs and after 18 times in a row, Finally Finally beat the Canadiens 4
games to 1. Cam Neely and Ray Bourque along with Reggie Lemelin were key to
his. My fondest memory is game 5 when
the Bruins already up 3-1 in the Series and 3-1 in the game, Cam Neely broke in
from the right wing all alone and shot it upstairs over Patrick Roy. God rest his soul, I can hear Fred Cuisick,
saying “Neely in, HE SCORES and Boston leads 4-1” Let me tell you, this was so
much fun to see. I hated the Canadiens
back then, I was so sick of them winning but it was nice to slay the dragon.
Boston went
on to beat an upstart Devils team but in the Finals they were overmatched by
the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 when Wayne Gretzky won his Final Cup as a player
there. That was okay. This was a huge
success for a team that always lost to MTL and beat them to get to a
Final. Bourque was excellent that
playoff getting 3 goals and 21 points and was a true leader on the ice and off
as well. 87-88 was the 2nd of
Bourque’s 5 Norris Trophies with the last one being 93-94.
1988-89 was
a disappointing year for the Bruins in the playoffs but 89-90 may have been
Bourques best all-around season in his career. He had 19 goals 84 points and
led Boston to a fantastic season of 46 wins and 101 points. Neely was a force scoring 55 goals for his
career high and other balanced scoring had Craig Janney with 24 goals and 62
points in only 55 games, Bob Carpenter with 25 goals and Bob Sweeny with 22
goals. The playoffs started and the
Bruins played a scrappy Hartford Whalers team that was not as bad as everyone
thought. They had Ron Francis, Kevin Dineen, Pat Verbeek and good team speed.
The Whalers were up in the series 2-1 and in game 4 up 5-2 in the 3rd
period, when coach Mike Milbury made a goaltending switch from Reggie Lemelin
to Andy Moog. Whatever he did he sparked one of the best comebacks in the
Bruins playoff history. First Dave Poulin scored to make it 5-3, then Bob Beers
on a breakaway off of the inside of the post to make it 5-4 and then Dave
Christian on a one timer blast to make it 5-5.
I thought this game was going to OT but then Dave Poulin struck again on
a scramble in front to make it 6-5. Good teams find a way to win. This was the
case. The next round the Bruins wiped
out Montreal 4-1 and in the Conference Final the Capitals 4-1.
Next came
the finals and another classic game that I saw. Game 1 vs the Edmonton Oilers
seemed to be one of the best and lasted a long time. The Oilers took an early
2-0 lead in the game but Ray Bourque scored 2 late goals to tie it up and send
it to overtime. The Bruins had tons of
chances in the overtime to win this game as they outshot the Oilers 52-31 for
the game. Bill Ranford robbed Cam Neely on a shot that trickled behind him. Glen Wesley had a chance with an empty net
but was on his backhander and shot it high. Wesley gets criticized for this
over the years but to me, he was a defenseman and to score from that far out on
a backhander is very hard. Bourque,
Neely or for the other side Glen Anderson or Mark Messier would score but most
would not.
This game
even had a partial power outage as well in the overtime and I distinctly remember
Andy Moog sitting on the corner of the net. Once play resumed in the 3rd
overtime little used Peter Klima shot a weak shot that beat Andy Moog between
the pads and just like that the Oiler won.
This game deflated Boston and they were not the same after that. The did
win game 4 in Edmonton but ultimately the team with a lot of Stanley Cup
veterans won another one for the oilers.
This is the closest Bourque ever got to winning a Cup in Boston.
Bourque
would still be a great player for the Bruins in the 90s but the team kind of
got stuck in mediocrity after a while. Another big highlight though was in the
1996 All Star game at the FleetCenter (now TD Garden) Bourque scored on a
Backhander under the crossbar to have the East beat the West 5-4. It was nice to see the hometown hero win the
game. Bourque would usually get about 20
goals and 80 points until the mid-1990s. His last really big productive season
was 95-96 when he scored 20 goals and 82 points. In 1999-2000 Bourque asked Harry Sinden to
trade him to a team that would have a chance to in a Cup. As a good GM would
do, after 21 years of loyalty to his player he showed Bourque the respect and
did trade him to the Colorado Avalanche for Brian Rolston and 2 other non- descript
prospects. Rolston was pretty good in
Boston but Bourque would finally get his wish and have a legit chance to win a
Cup for the first time since 1990.
It did take
the first year disappointment losing in the Conference Finals to the Dallas
Stars. Bourque decided to come back for a 22nd season with the
Colorado Avalanche. Although he was not the Norris Trophy candidate anymore, he
still had a very good season with 7 goals and 59 points. The playoffs started and the Avalanche rolled
vs the Canucks in the first round 4-0. In Round 2 the LA Kings gave them all
they could handle taking it to a game 7 but the Avs outlasted them and coasted
in Game 7 with a 5-1 win. The Avs beat the Blues 4-1 with game 5 being an
overtime winner by Joe Sakic I believe.
The Finals were going to be very difficult as the NJ Devils who had won
the season before were a very good team and would be ready. The Finals were a see-saw battle. Bourque
scored the game winner in Game 3 to put the Avs up 2-1 but the Devils would not
go away. The Devils were up 3-2 in the series when the leaders stepped up for
them. Patrick Roy when he knew that he could not lose again or the Cup was the
Devils, was locked in and shutout the Devils in NJ 4-0. Adam Foote of all people a stay at home
defenseman had 1 goal and 2 assists. In
Game 7, Joe Sakic and Alex Tanguay both had huge games. Sakic scored a big goal
to take the pressure off and then Tanguay helped finish off the Devils. Roy
shut the door and the Avs won the elusive Stanley Cup for Bourque. Joe Sakic showed class himself by taking the
Cup from Gary Bettman and then handing it to Bourque to skate around with it
first. Patick Roy had a nice quote that
said the Stanley Cup had one name missing from it but now it is back to normal.
Roy won his 4th Cup in 2001.
Bourque
would retire after the Finals with a complete career. He scored 410 goals 1169
assists for 1579 points in 1612 games played.
In the playoffs he had 41 goals and 139 assists for 180 points in 214
games. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004. To sum it up, Ray Bourque is a true
professional both on and off the ice and no other player embodied class and
dignity than him.
To all that
read this, Thank you very much. I appreciate you taking the time to do so. I
hope it brings back some memories for you as it did for me.
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