#10 - Ray Bourque

Ray Bourque (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #10)

1979-1980   Bos          82 GP   15 goals   43 assists   58 points   0.71 PPG
1980-1981   Bos          69 GP   22 goals   24 assists   46 points   0.67 PPG
1981-1982   Bos          67 GP   13 goals   38 assists   52 points   0.78 PPG
1982-1983   Bos          67 GP   18 goals   42 assists   60 points   0.89 PPG
1983-1984   Bos          80 GP   25 goals   52 assists   77 points   0.96 PPG
1984-1985   Bos          75 GP   16 goals   54 assists   70 points   0.93 PPG
1985-1986   Bos          76 GP   15 goals   46 assists   61 points   0.81 PPG
1986-1987   Bos          80 GP   20 goals   62 assists   82 points   1.02 PPG
1987-1988   Bos          80 GP   14 goals   54 assists   69 points   0.86 PPG
1988-1989   Bos          62 GP   15 goals   36 assists   51 points   0.84 PPG
1989-1990   Bos          78 GP   16 goals   56 assists   72 points   0.92 PPG
1990-1991   Bos          78 GP   19 goals   67 assists   86 points   1.10 PPG
1991-1992   Bos          82 GP   19 goals   54 assists   73 points   0.89 PPG
1992-1993   Bos          76 GP   16 goals   52 assists   68 points   0.89 PPG
1993-1994   Bos          70 GP   19 goals   66 assists   84 points   1.20 PPG
1994-1995   Bos          79 GP   21 goals   55 assists   76 points   0.96 PPG
1995-1996   Bos          82 GP   20 goals   61 assists   80 points   0.98 PPG
1996-1997   Bos          62 GP   20 goals   33 assists   53 points   0.76 PPG
1997-1998   Bos          82 GP   15 goals   41 assists   56 points   0.68 PPG
1998-1999   Bos          81 GP   12 goals   55 assists   67 points   0.82 PPG
1999-2000   Bos/Col   79 GP    20 goals   38 assists   58 points   0.74 PPG
2000-2001   Col*         80 GP   8 goals     58 assists   66 points   0.82 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1979-1980   Bos          10 GP    2 goals     8 assists     9 points     0.94 PPG
1980-1981   Bos          3 GP      0 goals     1 assist      1 point       0.24 PPG
1981-1982   Bos          9 GP      1 goal       4 assists    5 points      0.52 PPG
1982-1983   Bos          17 GP    6 goals     12 assists   18 points   1.06 PPG
1983-1984   Bos          3 GP      0 goals     2 assists     2 points     0.59 PPG
1984-1985   Bos          5 GP      0 goals     2 assists     2 points     0.45 PPG
1985-1986   Bos          3 GP      0 goals     0 assists     0 points     0.00 PPG
1986-1987   Bos          4 GP      1 goal       2 assists    3 points     0.67 PPG
1987-1988   Bos          23 GP    2 goals     14 assists   16 points   0.69 PPG
1988-1989   Bos          10 GP    0 goals     3 assists     3 points     0.34 PPG
1989-1990   Bos          17 GP    4 goals     10 assists   14 points   0.85 PPG
1990-1991   Bos          19 GP    6 goals     15 assists   21 points   1.12 PPG
1991-1992   Bos          12 GP    3 goals     5 assists     8 points     0.66 PPG
1992-1993   Bos          4 GP      1 goal      0 assists     1 point       0.21 PPG
1993-1994   Bos          13 GP    2 goals     8 assists     10 points   0.76 PPG
1994-1995   Bos          5 GP      0 goals     3 assists     3 points     0.53 PPG
1995-1996   Bos          5 GP      1 goal      6 assists     7 points     1.34 PPG
1997-1998   Bos          6 GP      1 goal      4 assists     6 points     0.93 PPG
1998-1999   Bos          12 GP    1 goal      10 assists   11 points   0.91 PPG
1999-2000   Col           13 GP    1 goal      10 assists   11 points   0.83 PPG
2000-2001   Col*         21 GP    5 goals     7 assists     12 points   0.56 PPG

Career - 1667 GP, 378 goals, 1087 assists, 1465 points, 0.88 PPG
Career-Highs - 25 goals (83-84); 67 assists (90-91); 86 points (90-91); 1.20 PPG (93-94)
Avg. (22 seasons) - 76 GP, 17 goals, 49 assists, 67 points, 0.88 PPG
Peak Avg. (89-97) - 76 GP, 19 goals, 56 assists, 74 points, 0.98 PPG, 0 Cups

Playoff Career - 214 GP, 37 goals, 126 assists, 163 points, 0.76 PPG
Career-Highs - 6 goals (82-83); 15 assists (90-91); 21 points (90-91); 1.34 PPG (95-96)

Accolades - 5 Norris Trophies, Calder
All-Star Teams - 13-time 1st-team, 6-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion

The most heartbroken I have ever been as a hockey fan was in the spring/early summer of 2001. The New Jersey Devils, my favourite team and the defending Stanley Cup champions, were up 3-2 in the '01 Cup Final against the Colorado Avalanche. They were heading back to New Jersey. It seemed like they were going to accomplish the rare repeat championship. Then they laid an egg, losing 4-0 at home, and it was back to Denver for Game Seven, and it was really never in doubt. The Avalanche easily won, their franchise's second championship instead of the Devils' third, and that was that.

But as crushed as I was by that series (and believe me, this was at the height of my Devilsmania, when the superstitions I had compiled had me spending a good portion of each day in religious preparation for a playoff game), it did have a silver lining: Raymond Bourque, the best defenceman of the 1990s (and possibly a good chunk of the 1980s), in his twenty-second and (it would prove-to-be) final season, finally had his first Cup championship.

Essentially, you can take everything I said about Nik Lidstrom above and apply it to Bourque...they're basically the same player. How I would rank the two in comparison to one another could change with the flip of a coin. I give the slightest of edges to Lidstrom simply because he was fortunate to be the backbone of an elite team that won four championships over twelve years, while Bourque was the reliable backstop for a good-but-never-great Bruins team that always made the playoffs, and never won anything.

Bourque's numbers and accomplishments are eerily similar to Lidstrom's: the longevity, the consistency, the Norris trophies (five to Lidstrom's six). Where Bourque has Lidstrom beat, and indeed pretty much everyone beat, is his appearance on year-end all-star teams: an incredible thirteen first-team appearances and six second-team appearaces. Let that sink in for a bit: in twenty-two of the seasons he played, Bourque was considered one of the two best defencemen in the league 13 times, and one of the four best 6 times.

That's why Bourque's Cup drought was indeed so tragic. Imagine if Nicklas Lidstrom, after all his years of service with the Red Wings, had never won a fucking Cup and was nearing retirement! No one begrudges Bourque's decision to accept the trade to the Colorado Avalanche. And contrary to people's hazy memory, Bourque's Cup with the Avalanche wasn't of the rent-a-player variety. It's not like he went to the Avs for two months + a playoff run. In his first year with the Avalanche, they fell short, losing in the Conference finals. It was only the next season that they finally got it done for Ray. So Bourque was a part of the championship team from the beginning of training camp until the end of the playoffs. And he was no slouch: 66 points, yet another appearance on the NHL's first all-star team, and a Norris nomination.

Bourque's career +/- is the third highest of all-time, behind Larry Robinson and Bobby Orr. And in many ways, it may be more impressive than Lidstrom, because Lidstrom's teams were undoubtably more consistently talented than Bourque's throughout the years. So Bourque was the consummate defenceman: never making a glaring mistake, steady, with incredible passing vision, an insanely accurate shot (remember those All-Star competitions he kept winning), and a quiet ability to lead. He belongs on the list of the best players to ever play the game.