To say Ray Bourque was a great hockey player would be a huge understatement. The Hall of Fame defenseman played 22 seasons in the NHL, amassing 1,579 points.
To say Ray Bourque was a great hockey player would be a huge understatement. The Hall of Fame defenseman played 22 seasons in the NHL, amassing 1,579 points. He appeared in 19 consecutive all-star games [a league record], won the Norris Trophy for best defenseman five times and won the Stanley Cup in the last game of his career.
Bourque was in Lac La Biche on Friday to speak at the 15th annual Portage College Sports and Education Dinner. The POST had a chance to interview the hockey legend a few hours before his appearance, after he had finished a Q&A session with students from Aurora Middle School at the Bold Center.
Can you tell me a little bit about your speaking tours and some of the more interesting places you’ ve been, and why you found those to be interesting places?
I do some stuff around New England. I’ m a spokesman for Brookshire Bank there in the Brookshires, but they’ re growing around New England. I was a spokesman for, it ended up being TD Bank for many years, so that took me a lot of different places where some of it was speaking to groups, some of it was charity events and all that stuff. I do a mix of those things. I have a foundation called Celebrities for Charity in Boston, and we do a lot of different things. I do some work for Jackson Events that have me doing different things; it could be a Pro-Am or a hockey fantasy weekend, or like this right now with a couple of speaking gigs to raise money for the College here. Last night [in Cold Lake] went very well, and tonight I’ m looking forward to going out and just talking about my career and kind of where it started and how I had success and some of the stories about my career, also some funny stuff that happened along the way - I kind of go about it that way. It took me a lot of different directions and a lot of different places. Off the top of my head, a lot of them were in Boston, lots of places throughout Canada. It’ s fun. It’ s something that you kind of have to get used to initially, trying to put something together that we’ re going to talk about. Really, I enjoy the Q and A. I like when I’ m interacting with people - they ask you a question and I could go on for five or ten minutes on something if the question pushes me in that direction, so I like to know where they want to go with stuff. I really enjoy the Q and A. I’ ll speak a little bit about stuff tonight but then the Q and A is pretty interesting.
Are there any certain messages you like to try and bring when you go on speaking tours like this, or do you tailor it for where you’ re going and see where it takes you when you get there?
It all depends if you want a certain message, and then I’ ll try to bring an experience out in that direction. For me, playing hockey was a love, and it was something that, getting up in the morning was very exciting for me every day. I try to encourage people to try to think about finding something that will do that to you. It could be anything, and whatever it is, try to be the best you could be. If it’ s a plumber, if it’ s a janitor, if it’ s a lawyer, if it’ s a doctor... you want to be the best you can be, you want to make a difference, and you want to approach it in a certain way. For me, it was all about my four “P’ s”: Having a plan, the preparation that comes towards that plan, the perseverance that you need to have to be the best for the ups and downs you have to go through, and the passion. If it’ s something you really like, that passion is going to light your fire and allow you to go out and work as hard as you can, persevere as much as you can, and to prepare as much as you have to to be the best that you could be, and that’ s all mapped out by the plan. I kind of hit on those areas, and it doesn’ t have to be for a hockey player, it could be for whatever you want to be in life. I kind of talk about hat experience and how I kind of went about it, and never really being satisfied and never giving myself the credit, and being a perfectionist but not in a destructive way - in a positive way, where makes you want to be better everyday regardless of what happened the day before. Whatever happened the night of my hockey games, once it was over it didn’ t matter because tomorrow I had to do it again, and again and again, and I wanted to do it better and better and better everyday. That’ s how I stayed so consistent throughout my career, and allowed me to be the player that I was.
What’ s one of the most important lessons about life that you think you learned through your playing career that you try to apply every day to yourself?
For me, it’ s having the glass half full and being positive. There are two ways: glass half full or half empty. Half full, I think, is a lot more enjoyable way and a positive way to go through life than the other way: always being down or thinking the worst or thinking things will always be bad. Be optimistic. Have that kind of philosophy and that mentality and think better things or better outcomes are going to come your way. By thinking that way, you’ re not so down when it doesn’ t work out, you always have a way to pick yourself up and be better and make things right.
The hockey team here had a bit of a rough season, I imagine you probably had a couple of those through your career as well. What’ s your advice on how to bounce back from a season like that, for the returning players?
Learn from it. Recognize what happened and try to fix it and try to make a difference. When you’ re playing a team sport, it’ s a lot more than just one person. The biggest key in that is the people who are in charge and making decisions need to recognize what happened, but as a player, I know that I’ m going to train harder, I’ m going to prepare harder, and I’ ll be ready for next season and try to make amends. Most times, it happened that way.
What’ s a memorable, stand out moment for you from your career in the NHL?
There’ s a lot of them. My first game ever played in the Boston Garden, my first game to finally know that you’ ve made the NHL, you’ re going to get a chance to play the game. It was pretty exciting and nerve wracking. Then finally making two finals - like that final in 1988, getting there for the first time was a great thrill. Beating the Montreal Canadiens finally in 1988, getting to the finals in the playoffs. It had been almost 45 years that the Bruins hadn’ t done that. For the Bruins and the organization, it was really a major hurdle that we got through, ad to be a part of that team to make it happen was special. Then the cup run in 1990 and the All-Star game in ’ 96, I scored the winning goal with just over a minute left in the game. Then, you know, playing for my country in ’ 81, ’ 84, and ’ 87 Canada Cup, and being part of the first team that played in the Olympics, where NHL guys were allowed to play in the Olympics in ’ 98 in Nagano, and obviously the Stanley Cup experience in Colorado was a very special one. There was a whole bunch, and there’ s way more of those, but to pick one is very hard to do.
Who was one of the worst players you played against for being able to get in your head?
I tried not to let that happen. I wasn’ t really a chatterer out there. If you talked to me I just kind of... I wasn’ t the best guy at one-liners. It just made me want to beat you more. I played against the top lines on every team, so it was more of a challenge trying to shut those guys down - the good players like a Gretzky, or a Lemieux, or a Messier, or an Yzerman, or those types of guys where you knew you were up for a big challenge. That was the stuff that you had to prepare for... Not that you were afraid of those challenges but it was going to be a tough assignment.
As a goalie, I have to ask this one: Who was the quirkiest goalie you played with?
Probably somebody you’ ve never heard of, Marco Baron. He was a different dude. A guy a liked a lot, but he was different. He was really compulsive. He had to touch things a certain way, and if he didn’ t had had to go back to it, and it was like “Oh my God”.
A whole process?
It was crazy.
That sounds familiar. Last one: Cup prediction for this year?
I think you’ ve got to look at the top teams in both conferences. They had really good strong years. New York’ s built pretty solid from the goalie out, I think they’ re going to be there. I think Anaheim has a really good chance, the only thing is that they’ re unproven in goal. They don’ t seem to have a 1A, they seem to have two 1B’ s. both guys are still trying to establish themselves as major number ones, both of them are talented, but it remains to be seen.
Awesome, thanks a lot.
You’ re welcome.
