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Friday, February 2, 2001
Midseason get-together still enjoyable after 18 years
By Karen Price
Scripps Howard News Service
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DENVER -- Ray Bourque is an old pro at the whole All-Star thing.
|  | | At 40, Bourque still displays All-Star skills against players almost half his age -- like 23-year-old Jerome Iginla. |
Sunday, the 40-year-old defenseman will play in his NHL-record 19th
consecutive NHL All-Star Game, albeit his first as a member of the
Colorado Avalanche. The record for overall appearances is 23, held by
former Detroit star Gordie Howe.
Bourque was voted a starter by fans for the North American Team,
his 13th time making the first team.
But he won't hesitate to describe in detail his fondest memory from
the gathering of the game's greats.
It was Jan. 20, 1996, in Boston, where Bourque spent all of his 20
NHL seasons before being traded to the Avalanche last February. The
game was tied at 4-4 with the seconds winding down.
"It was kind of a 3-on-2, 4-on-3 kind of thing," Bourque said.
"I was trailing the play late and (Mark) Messier and (Pat) Verbeek
were out there. The puck popped out into the low slot where I was
following the play kind of close. I kind of whacked a hard backhand
top shelf against (Felix) Potvin."
Bourque's goal with 38 seconds left gave the East a 5-4 win over
the West, and Bourque was named MVP in front of his hometown crowd,
family and friends.
"It couldn't have been any better," he said. "Right place, right
time, and the game was played in the right place for it to happen that
way."
When Avalanche head coach Bob Hartley gave Bourque the night off
from a regular season game against the Islanders on Jan. 16, it
seemed a bit strange to onlookers at first. But Hartley's explanation
was something that couldn't be argued with -- Bourque hadn't had an
All-Star break in 19 years. The game is an honor, but the weekend off
before the final stretch of the regular season is time most players
not involved in the game use to relax with family and take a break.
Bourque used the two days off to fly directly from Chicago, where
the Avs played a game, to Boston to visit his daughter, who attends
high school in the area.
That was his All-Star break.
Even after so many games, Bourque still loves playing in them,
though. He is now second on the all-time list of appearances made,
behind Gordie Howe's 23. He is also the 7th-oldest player to appear in
an All-Star Game.
"It gives you an opportunity to get to know certain individuals a
little more," he said. "You're not going to get to know someone too
well over the course of two days but certainly some guys you might
only see once or twice a year, you get to talk to about certain things
that are going on. Among teams or the league, or a lot of different
things. It's nice, it's a different context, a different atmosphere.
You're not competing against a guy, he's actually on your side, it's
kind of nice."
One guy who Bourque now knows very well who won't be on his side is
Peter Forsberg, the only Avalanche member competing for the World
Team.
"Peter being my teammate and all, I'm still going to try to stop
him and he'll still try to beat me," Bourque said. "But I'm not
going to try to kill him, that's for sure. But then nobody's going out
there trying to hurt anybody, that's not how it's played."
In addition to his four goals and 13 assists in 18 All-Star
appearances, Bourque has won or shared the accuracy shooting title
from the skills competition six times in the 1990's. He hit the four
targets on four shots in four consecutive games.
Bourque admits he's more fond of the lower-scoring games than the
blowouts, of which he's been part many times. The games between 1989
and 1994 were the six highest-scoring games in NHL history. A total of
104 goals were scored, the biggest blowout coming when the Wales
Conference beat the Campbell Conference 16-6 in 1993.
Bourque was the only player to score at least one point in all six
games.
But it's really no wonder Bourque would rather see the low-scoring
games, as rare as they may be with so much talent assembled in once
place. He is, after all, a defenseman.
"As a defenseman if you come out of it without giving up a goal or
coming out on the plus side, that's what you like," he said.
"Goalies are first trying to survive the game, then it's defensemen.
Last year I was playing with Eric Desjardins and we didn't give up a
goal against so we were pretty happy about that. As a defenseman
that's what you like to come out with but it doesn't happen too
often."
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