By: John Sparenberg
When the National Hockey League cancelled the entire 2004-05 season due to a labor dispute between the players and management, there were many residual effects.
One of the biggest, if not the very biggest issue in the dispute was money. Prior to the impasse, many of the teams made preemptive moves to cut costs and unload the salaries of players on big money contracts by trading them, usually for prospects or future draft picks, both of whom would be paid far less than the players being shipped out. The Washington Capitals were one of the teams that were in selling mode in the months leading up to the lockout.
George McPhee, the Caps’ General Manager at the time realized at some point during the 2003-04 season, one that saw his club finish twenty-three games under .500, that he needed to import some young talent into the organization and export some of his highly paid veteran talents. The best and quickest way to get the renovations underway was via the trade route where he could accumulate both young prospects and draft picks.
McPhee’s maneuvering that season proved to be pivotal in revitalizing an organization that obviously missed the post-season in 2003-04, and had not progressed beyond a first round in six. His trade of Capitals legend Peter Bondra brought Brooks Laich into organization, and his trading of Robert Lang, who at the time he was sent motoring to the Detroit Red Wings was leading the NHL in scoring, yielded Tomas “Flash” Fleischmann along with a 2004 first round draft pick. Defenseman Sergei Gonchar was also sent packing and the return on him was a player and another first round draft pick in the same draft.
Washington also won a lottery that gave them the first overall pick in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, and giving them a total of four of the first 33 picks, and McPhee and his staff selected very shrewdly. Alex Ovechkin was chosen to be the first selection, defenseman Jeff Schultz was selected with the pick acquired for Gonchar, and Washington closed out their first round with the selection of defenseman Mike Green, obtained in the Lang trade.
It can’t be denied that Ovechkin, Schultz, Green, and Laich each played integral parts in the restoring of the Caps since that 2004 draft. Ovechkin, “The Russian Goal Scoring Machine”, has lit the lamp with regularity ever since he first stepped onto NHL ice, and he is undeniably the face of the franchise. Schultz, Green, and Laich all earned Calder Cup rings with the Bears in 2006, and then graduated to become NHL regulars in the nation’s capital, but the 33rd selection in the 2004 draft, Chris Bourque, has had as much to do with turning the Bears’ fortunes around since he arrived in Hershey.
Prior to Bourque joining the Bears in the 2005-06 season, the club had failed to qualify for Calder Cup play for two straight seasons, but he, along with many other ultra-talented teammates, helped turn the Bears into a perennial AHL powerhouse and three time Calder Cup champions, and he has returned to Chocolatetown this season to try and reverse the playoff fortunes of a team that hasn’t advanced beyond the second round in five seasons, a situation that he had a mighty hand in contributing to.
After inking a two-year, two-way, free agent contract with the Caps/Bears over the summer, Bourque, the Boston native, instantly added more footnotes to his already impressive AHL accomplishments in the season opener in his home state against the Springfield Falcons, collecting his 500th AHL point.
“The 500th point was an exciting milestone,” said Bourque. “It wasn’t something I was really even aware of. It’s just one of those things that happen when you play in the league for a bunch of years with a bunch of great players. It’s something I’m proud of, but it’s more important that the team is doing well.”
A few games later, in the Bears’ home opener against the Hartford Wolf Pack, with whom Bourque skated with last season, he made his return to Giant Center in storybook fashion and sent his former mates howling off the ice in defeat after he lit the lamp in overtime.
“Opening nights are always exciting, but this one was even more exciting than usual because we were playing them, and my brother is still playing with them.”
In this day in age, in all contact sports, there is a heightened awareness of concussion-type injuries. Substantial emphasis is now being put on equipment and precautions to prevent such injuries with a heightened sense of caution being utilized when they do, where in the past in similar situations, players often played on after “getting their bell rung.”
Unfortunately, Bourque has had share of concussions over the years and missed a substantial part of the 2012-13 season with Providence with a concussion. He was also involved in a harrowing Halloween eve collision in his rookie season when his 5’7” 170-pound frame absorbed a bone rattling hit from a significantly bigger and heavier opponent, 6’4” 210-pound Johnathan Aitken, who like Chris’s father Ray was a former first round pick of the Boston Bruins. The result of the Aitken body belt saw Bourque being stretchered off the ice.
“They’re doing a great job now. It’s a lot different than when I came into the league because there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to head injuries at that point. As the game gets faster and the guys are bigger and stronger, the hits and impacts to the head are a lot more vicious than they used to be. It’s nice to see that people are taking a big notice because obviously you need your head and your brain. They’re real important parts of your body. It’s great they’ve taken steps in the right direction because it affects you not only when you’re playing, but during life after sports. You don’t want to be having post-concussion syndrome later after you finish playing. At that point, you just want to relax and not think about and deal with old injuries. The preventive steps and the monitoring are definitely good things.”
Following in the footsteps of Ray, the NHL rookie of the year in his first season in “Beantown” and a perennial NHL all-star who finally captured an elusive Stanley Cup in his 22nd season with the Colorado Avalanche, would seem to be a daunting task. Simply put, the mere mention of the name Ray Bourque causes folks who know their hockey to immediately take notice, but Chris has obviously proven himself to be a solid pro with exceptional skills and has earned every accolade thrown his way based on the merits of his own play.
“I would never ever say it was a disadvantage because of my dad,” said Chris, who placed strong emphasis on the word ‘never.’ “Growing up, whenever I had a question, or whenever he was coaching me, it was good to get advice from one of the best players to ever play the game teaching me to play the game.”
On the heels of his outstanding performance in the 2009 Calder Cup Playoffs, during which he registered 21 points in 22 games, including the series winning goal against the Providence Bruins and the Calder Cup winning goal against the Manitoba Moose, Bourque was claimed on waivers by the Pittsburgh Penguins just before the start of the 2009-10 season, and thus began a journey that has taken him nearly all over the world.
The stint with the Penguins lasted but twenty games before a combination of a lack of production, three points (all assists), and salary cap issues moved the Pens to put to put him on waivers in December. The Caps then reclaimed him, and Bourque was assigned to the Bears for the rest of the season, although he did appear in one game for the Caps. Once again, Bourque excelled in the post-season, averaging better than a point per game and earning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the playoff MVP for the Calder Cup champs.
At that point, having already earned the three titles in the AHL, incidentally the only player in Hershey history to do so, but getting limited opportunities to succeed in the NHL, Bourque elected to go overseas as the next stop in his hockey odyssey, signing with a team in Russia. Early into his stay in the Soviet Union, he moved on to a team in Switzerland in mid-season. A few years later, he was back in the USSR, but once again he was off to Switzerland in mid-season, and while it may not have worked out as well as he had envisioned, he chooses to look at the positive side of the adventure.
“I thoroughly enjoyed playing in Switzerland. It’s really open style hockey over there, with lots of offense and a big ice surface. The country is also amazing. It’s probably the most beautiful country in the world. It was a great place to travel and see all the great scenery. There’s so much going on in the area. Italy is pretty much right there, and we went to London and Paris and a bunch of other great cities. I’d be open to going back there in the future. Russia, on the other hand, was tough for me and my family. It was not the best experience, but I’m best for the experience.”
Bourque’s playoff proficiency in the AHL hasn’t been limited to his time spent with the Bears. In fact, in both of the seasons that he has toiled in the league in other jerseys, as fate would have it, his clubs have met the Bears in the post-season, and the end result of both saw him making significant contributions to his teams sending the Bears scurrying for tee times, and he and his boys moving on to the next round.
Did he derive any extra satisfaction in eliminating the Bears while in enemy colors? “For sure, because definitely I wouldn’t have heard the end of it if it was the other way around, especially coming back here this year. You never want to lose to your former team,” said Bourque.
So all of this begs the questions, why hasn’t Bourque spent more than 51 games in the NHL, and why hasn’t he produced as expected when he has been afforded his limited opportunities? Could it be his size? That was the question posed to Bourque when I asked him if he thought he might have been afforded more of an opportunity if he were six foot plus.
“It’s a good question, but it’s hard to answer,” said Bourque, who has played in the NHL with the Bruins, Penguins, and Capitals. “Anybody can say ‘what if I had this or that,’ but it’s not something I like to think about. Obviously, everybody wants to be bigger, stronger, and faster, and obviously I’d like to add more height, but it wasn’t in the cards for me. If I had to do it all over again, I think there are some things I would have done differently, and obviously I’d like another chance to prove myself again. Hopefully that opportunity comes, and I’ll be able to produce more with the chance next time around.”
Or could it be simply being in right place, at the right time?
To back up this theory, consider the facts. In the AHL where Bourque has been a consistent scorer, he usually plays on the top line on a regular shift He usually finds himself surrounded by equally talented linemates, mans the power play from his patented place on the point, and also spends an abundance of time on the penalty-killing unit. However, with the Capitals in thirteen career games spread out over three seasons, he has usually played on the third line, often with players not known for their offensive prowess, has averaged less than ten minutes of ice time and 12 total shifts per game including three games where he received less than six minutes on the ice. He has averaged less than a minute per game on the power play and has not patrolled the ice for a single second on the penalty killing unit.
“Up there, when you’re only playing five to ten minutes a game, you have to use your ice time wisely and try to make an impact in a very short period of time. It’s almost more that you’re trying to not make any mistakes and not give them an opportunity to give you more ice time. It’s definitely hard to show your tool set when you’re not put in the best situations to succeed. Sometimes, that’s just the way it happens, and you really can’t blame anyone. You’re not going to go up there and take Alex Ovechkin’s ice time, or someone like that’s ice time. They are the best players in the world up there, so you have to earn your ice time. Those things make it hard for guys to go up there and stay up there. Often getting up there is the easy part. Staying there is the hard part.”
Hopefully, there are still plenty of points and records to be added to Chris Bourque’s legacy in the American Hockey League, and a healthy sprinkling of NHL games would complement that quite nicely, but what if he retired today? Would he be satisfied with his accomplishments?
“Honestly, I haven’t thought about it,” said Bourque, who then hesitated and offered up an “I don’t know” before another brief moment of silence while he pondered the question. “Winning the Calder Cups and playing in All-Star games and getting MVP trophies are all nice, and winning championships is something to be proud of, but the thing I would be most happy about is the people that I’ve met and the teammates that I’ve played with. When you win, there’s a certain bond that you form with your teammates, and I’ve been a part of three of those. I’ve played with some really special people, people I still keep in contact with today. That would be the part of my career I’m most thankful for.”
Hershey Bears captain, Bryan Helmer, may never see his name and number hanging from the rafters of Giant Center like Mike Nykoluk and Ralph Keller, each of whom captained the Bears to a Calder Cup Championship; but in his two year tenure at the helm, Helmer has accomplished something that neither of them will ever accomplish: leading his club to back-to-back titles.