Ray Bouruqe pauses during the ceremony retiring his jersey in Boston.

Bourque:
Great player, great dad
By John McGourty | NHL.com
Nov. 8, 2004

After 22 years in the NHL and with a Stanley Cup under his belt, Bourque looked forward to spending more time with his family in their home on Boston's North Shore. Bourque has done just that while fulfilling his hockey habit vicariously.

Bourque and his wife, Christiane, have three children, Melissa, Christopher and Ryan.

When Bourque got the call last spring that he had been selected, he said his induction would be another great thing to look forward to in a year of big events.

First, he was looking forward to son Chris going to the 2004 Entry Draft in Raleigh and then on to college at Boston University. Chris was a star at Cushing Academy in western Massachusetts and his star is rapidly rising.

Chris was taken in the second round by the Washington Capitals. Other teams had him rated lower, but GM George McPhee had stockpiled an impressive array of early choices and took Bourque with his fourth pick after selecting the highly regarded Alexander Ovechkin with the No. 1 overall pick and defensemen Mike Green and Jeff Schultz. Bourque impressed observers at the Capitals' developmental camp with his speed, work ethic and awareness.

He's also off to a good start at BU, playing on an all-freshman line for legendary coach Jack Parker. In 21 seasons in Boston, Bourque had a long time to observe Parker and thought his son's hockey education would be in good hands.

"Chris is off to a good start and so is the team," Ray said late last week. "They're 3-2, but they lost their first two games to Miami of Ohio University and the University of Michigan in the Lefty McFadden Tournament in Dayton. They came back East and won their last three.

"BU has a lot of freshmen playing and Chris is on an all-freshman line with Peter MacArthur and Boomer Ewing, but Boomer got hurt. They had a big win over Maine, 2-1, and they've got a big game coming up against the University of New Hampshire."

Bourque likes going into the Hockey Hall of Fame in an all-defensemen class with Paul Coffey and Larry Murphy. He entered the NHL in 1979 and Murphy and Coffey entered a year later. All three were immediate sensations but only Bourque won the NHL's Calder Memorial Trophy. Murphy, who set NHL rookie scoring records for a defenseman, and Coffey were eclipsed in their year by forward Peter Stastny.

"I'm also proud to be joining Cliff Fletcher, who did a great job putting those teams together in Calgary and then in Toronto," Bourque said.

Bourque recalled that the Hall of Fame trio of defensemen were on the ice together in a memorable Eastern Conference Final in 1991 when Boston and the Pittsburgh Penguins squared off. The series got off to a good start for the Bruins, who won the first two games at Boston Garden. Pittsburgh then roared back to take two at home, beat the Bruins, 7-2, in Boston and finished them off with a 5-3 win at the Igloo in Game 6.

"Both those guys were a big part of that team," Bourque recalled. "Paul was, of course, doing it in a flashy way and Murphy in that subtle way of his. Sometimes, you wouldn't notice him until you realized he keeps beating people, makes great plays and is always in on big goals.

Chris Bourque was a second-round choice of the Washington Capitals at the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

"They were key ingredients with the offense Pittsburgh had," Bourque continued. They were both great at getting the puck up the ice to their forwards, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ronnie Francis, Mark Recchi, that whole group. That kind of talent up front and on the defense made it tough to defend against them."

Bourque had been on the losing end of two Stanley Cup Finals to the Edmonton Oilers in 1988 and 1990. Here he was, up two games in Pittsburgh, while the Minnesota North Stars were in the process of defeating Edmonton in the other semifinal. The Stanley Cup must have seemed awfully close, but he would have to wait another 10 years before hoisting it with the Colorado Avalanche.

"I remember when we were up two games, Kevin Stevens said Pittsburgh would win the next four games," Bourque said. "It was setting up pretty good for whoever got out of our series. Minnesota was playing Edmonton and I remember thinking it would have been nice not to play Edmonton again in the Finals. It would have been nice, but Pittsburgh had an explosive team. We met a few times in the Playoffs in those years and always had a hard time getting through them. They were a very talented, explosive and very deep team, similar to Edmonton."

All of Bourque's fans remember the great feeling when Avalanche captain Joe Sakic handed Bourque the Stanley Cup in 2001. He was a key to their winning that Stanley Cup and the team gave him special consideration after the game. Bourque, naturally, put his family foremost in his celebration.

"(Colorado GM) Pierre Lacroix told me I could bring the Stanley Cup home," Bourque recalled. "I had my family in town with us, watching the game. So, we buckled the Stanley Cup into the front seat and got home around 1:30 a.m. We started beeping the horn and all our neighbors came out. Well, there was one guy down the street who was from New Jersey. Earlier in the week, he had hung up a Devils championship flag from when they won in 1995. I remember seeing it one morning on my way to practice. He would also write messages in chalk at the foot of my driveway and every day he would stick a note with a different message to my garage door. It was pretty funny.

"So, one day, I got home and the neighbors had done his whole yard in toilet paper. The night we won, my kids said they had to take the Stanley Cup down to his house and show it to him. They wanted to see what kind of reaction they'd get. He was great. He came out with his kids and we all took pictures with our kids."

So, now Raymond Bourque, the Hall of Fame player, is Ray Bourque the hockey parent. It's not about you anymore, Ray, it's about the kids.

"It always has been. I haven't missed a game," he said.