The parade, Trottier said, was a wonderful chance to spend some time with Bourque, an old rival with whom he shared a championship in 2001 with the Avalanche.
"The NHL is giving a couple of old ding-dongs the chance to thank fans for their support of the League," he said. "Our float will precede a really fun game between two archrivals who share the colors of black and gold. Ray and I were former adversaries, but we shared a Stanley Cup and our friendship bond is pretty special. This will be all about representing the NHL as ambassadors. We share a history and we have an opportunity to thank the NHL and be the League's representatives in a real positive way."
Bourque vaguely recalls riding in a forever-ago parade in a little town somewhere, in a convertible, and cutting classes twice in the 1970s to attend two Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup parades.
"The teachers didn't know -- well, I guess they did when they took attendance and there were a couple of us missing," he said. "A couple of my buddies were big fans, we played hockey, so we came downtown to see the parade on Ste. Catherine Street. We weren't far from the Montreal Forum, having arrived by bus and the Metro (subway)."
It wasn't until 2000-01, the last of his 22 NHL seasons, that Bourque rode in a Cup parade of his own alongside Avalanche captain
Joe Sakic
on a fire engine, the celebration beginning with the convoy's modest exit from Denver's Pepsi Center.
"Joe had won the Cup in
1996
(with Colorado) and I remember asking him, 'Where are all the people?' " said Bourque, who had played the first 20 years of his career in Boston. "Joe told me, 'Wait…'
"And then we turned onto a street -- I don't remember which one -- and it was just jammed with people, on the street, on rooftops, hanging out of windows. It was an incredible experience. I remember thinking, 'Imagine this in Boston.'"
Ten years later, the Bruins went all the way, with Bourque attending Boston's three home games in the Stanley Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks. He was on vacation, in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, when the Bruins won Game 7 in Vancouver to capture their first title since 1972. He wasn't back in Boston in time to take part in the Bruins' downtown celebration.
The Macy's parade was a much grander event than the first parades Trottier remembers from his youth in tiny Val Marie, Saskatchewan, "a metropolis of 200 people" that's 75 miles south of Swift Current and 20 miles north of the Montana border.
"They were July 1 Dominion Day (now Canada Day) parades, celebrating our annual September rodeo," Trottier said. "They were a big to-do. We had floats, tractors, semis, bikes all dolled up… everybody got involved, the people and the businesses, it was really a community-minded thing.
"It was a big celebration, recognizing the spirit of people. We'd have farmers, ranchers, horseback riders, kids pulling along cows and pigs, the 4H got involved, kids in cowboy hats and boots, girls all glitzed up, the rodeo queens. What great memories."
