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Bourque's time had come Never a slave to sentiment, Bourque walks away
On Monday, Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber reported that Ray Bourque would retire Tuesday. CNNSI.com spoke to Farber about the impact Bourque's decision will have on the Avalanche and the veteran defenseman's impact on the game. CNNSI.com: How long ago did Ray Bourque make this decision? Farber: I think it was probably made during the playoffs, or before, contingent upon Colorado winning the Stanley Cup. CNNSI.com: For a guy who turned down a chance to play for Team Canada when many of the country's hockey fans ripped him for not doing so, there isn't any chance he is succumbing to public sentiment, is there? Farber: No. He's been pretty well a single-minded guy, trying to do what he perceived to be best for himself and his family. The decision to ask for a trade from the Bruins was unbelievably wrenching. People in the Boston area understood it better than anybody. I don't think anyone wants to see him retire. He can certainly play at a high level for at least another few years. Remember, he was one of the three finalists for the Norris Trophy. In fact, Michel Bergeron, who once traded him in junior hockey, told me during the playoffs that Bourque, with the right team, could play another five years. People in Canada should be concerned because Bourque and Adam Foote could have made an excellent third defensive pair for Team Canada in the Winter Olympics next February. CNNSI.com: Would he return? Farber: Team Canada general manager Wayne Gretzky would only, of course, take a player who has been playing. So Bourque has effectively taken himself out of that mix. Bourque is not going to retire in late June and come back in February. CNNSI.com: Could Bourque withstand another five seasons of playing 30 minutes per night? Farber: Inevitably there would be some diminution of ice time, but also understand that he trained so hard that it was better to have Bourque on the ice for 25 minutes than another defenseman on the ice for seven of those 25 minutes. He was ready to play 25 minutes a game. CNNSI.com: There were times he did look especially tired -- for instance, against the Kings in the playoffs. Farber: Last call for Bourque was really, in my mind, the 1996 playoffs when Bill Lindsay of the Panthers went around him for a game-winning goal. At that moment I thought it was last call. The fact that he managed to stay five years beyond that and remain among the top handful of defensemen in the league was a testament to how superb a player he really was, even though clearly he wasn't as effective a player as he was in the '88 and '90 seasons when the Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup finals. CNNSI.com: What made Bourque's game so special? Farber: Bourque will be remembered as one of the best three-zone defenseman. He didn't expand the game. He was not a pioneer. He didn't have any wrinkles in his game that other defensemen before him didn't have. But what made Bourque so special, and certainly one of the top five defensemen over the past 50 years, was his excellence over an extended period and his excellence in all phases of the game. Bourque also knew how to use his stick; to defend his own net and also to defend himself. He didn't get bumped as hard or as often as a lot of defensemen who obviously have to turn their backs to handle pucks behind the net.
He was a great guy with the first pass. And he never had fabulous partners until Foote. He played with two good ones in Boston; one might have been great if knee injuries hadn't cut short the career of Gord Kluzak. Foote made for, I don't want to call it a retirement present, but he was a nice way to go out. CNNSI.com: Does this increase the likelihood that Colorado makes a stronger effort to sign Rob Blake? Farber: They should make a big push. Blake had a first-rate playoff season for them and he's among the top defensemen in the league. Certainly his shot on the power play is excellent, not quite Al MacInnis, but one notch below. Colorado is going to have to pay a lot to keep him because there is a lot of interest in the league for a premier defenseman in what is already the deepest unrestricted free-agent class we've ever seen. CNNSI.com: And how will the Avalanche's overall balance sheet fall into place with Bourque out of the equation? Farber: They're saving roughly $5 million and change; they're giving him a $1 million buyout. But they still have three big-ticket items to sign. Joe Sakic is not a done deal and Patrick Roy likely returns. Still, there are questions on the other two, Sakic and Blake, the two sexiest free agents out there. To free up money, the suggestion has been made to trade Peter Forsberg. But how could you trade perhaps the most solid two-way player in the game? CNNSI.com: How drastically does Bourque's retirement change the outlook of the team? Farber: They won a Cup and they got lots of home dates, so I don't think it changes at all. Pierre Lacroix, year after year, is one of the rare general managers who sets the bar as high as he possibly can. With the ownership group in Colorado, there is money there, depending on how high they want to go. Money doesn't always buy Cups or happiness, as the New York Rangers will tell you, but these are proven Stanley Cup players and I'm sure they're going to try to bring all three back. CNNSI.com: What will your lasting impressions of Bourque be? Farber: I loved his pre-game ritual. He would be standing by himself near the boards by the blue line, and at just about "home" in "And the home of brave," he would bend down to touch the faceoff dot outside the blue line. Bourque would cross the ice from there, across the players still standing for the anthem, and, as the last note died, he'd be on the other side of the ice. That's something I always watched. It's silly, for all his fabulous moments on the ice, his one game back in Boston and seeing him raise the Cup sticks out. CNNSI.com: Where do you think he ranks among defensemen overall? Farber: Where do you fit Eddie Shore? I never saw Eddie Shore. Where do you fit Doug Harvey? If I saw Doug Harvey I was too young to appreciate him. But of the defensemen that I've seen, I put Bourque behind Bobby Orr, kind of on the next step with Denis Potvin and Larry Robinson. CNNSI.com: Will the three-year waiting period for induction be suspended by the Hall of Fame? Farber: It should not be. I think after Gretzky they realized they were doing it too often. Ray will wait his three years and then sashay in there. Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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