Bourque a Model of Consistency

No, Ray Bourque wasn’t around to play against King Clancy and Red Horner and Baldy Cotton and Busher Jackson in the Ace Bailey Benefit Game.

And no, he didn’t skate with Eddie Shore in that 1934 precursor to today’s NHL All-Star game.

It only seems like it.

Syl Apps had come and gone before Bourque became an all-star in 1981. So had Sid Abel, and Ted Lindsay and most of the rest of the population of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But Bill Barber, Marcel Dionne, Bob Gainey, Steve Shutt and Mike Bossy were there, Hall of Famers all. And so was certain Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky.

And here is Bourque, back today for his 17th consecutive game as he was for his first, as a Boston Bruin.

The names change, but Bourque is a constant, 20 years a Bruin.

“He can’t leave,” said Bruin teammate and World All-Star opponent Dmitri Khristich. “The Boston fans wouldn’t know what to do.”

He’s not leaving. Bourque is still playing 30 effective minutes a game, still among the NHL leaders among defensemen with four goals and 24 assists. Still an all-star, still a starter today, for the 12th time.

“You know, my first game, I was wide-eyed,” he said Saturday. “All of those players there, so many great players.”

Now the players are wide-eyed about Bourque, who commands as much respect as anybody in hockey for his work ethic and results.

“I looked at his hockey card the other day, and it’s 80 games and 76 games and he’s never played less than 50 games in a season,” said the Kings’ Rob Blake, also a defenseman for the North Americans in today’s game, hyperbolizing slightly because Bourque was limited to 46 games in the 1994-95 season, when the league was limited to 48 games because of a lockout.

Said New Jersey’s Scott Stevens: “It’s amazing how much enthusiasm he still has.”

Not so amazing.

“You can see that he genuinely loves to play the game,” Stevens said.

Added Khristich: “I can only tell you what he has told me: that playing around guys 25 years and under makes him feel younger.”

Bourque is 38, and his delight in playing today is a bit different than it was so many years ago.

“Now what really is great for me is having my kids around to watch me play,” he said, looking behind him where an 8-year-old offspring is ducking in and out of a dark blue curtain.

“They’re 13 and 8 years old, and I’m lucky that they can see me play and enjoy it. And it’s an honor to be chosen a starter by the fans, that they appreciate my playing.”

They do, in Boston and elsewhere.

And they’ll turn out today at the Ice Palace, for the second try at a somewhat jingoistic North American-World format. In the first, last year in Vancouver, North America was an 8-7 winner, holding off a World charge that came on third-period goals by Igor Kravchuk and Igor Larionov.

It’s a format that most like, that some find a bit strange, and one that conjures up some interesting matchups.

Take Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya.

For 45 games, give or take an occasional off-day, they have skated on the same line for the Mighty Ducks.

Today they skate against each other, Kariya for Team North America, Selanne for the World all-stars.

“I told him that we should meet at center ice and drop gloves,” Kariya said. “But he’ll be too chicken.”

“We said we would drop gloves right at the start,” Selanne said. “But he’ll be too scared.”

And take Bourque of North America and Khristich of the World.

“He deserves it,” Bourque said. “He’s had a great season. But I told him today not to come near me.”

The Kings’ Rob Blake and Mattias Norstrom have been a defensive tandem all season. They dined together Friday night in Tampa.

They skate against each other today.

“We don’t have a bet,” Norstrom said, “but when we get on the ice, we’ll probably talk about one.”

Briefly. Blake will kid Norstrom, who becomes so intense in games that he doesn’t like to talk to anyone. Blake can prey on that.

And then they’ll get together in Dallas, to play the Stars on Wednesday, the All-Star game something for the memory books.

It’s Norstrom’s first. He marvels at somebody who is playing in his 17th.

“He must have started when he was 20,” Norstrom said of Bourque. “I remember seeing him when I was 14 or 15.”

Norstrom, a Swede, can be excused if he came to the Bourque Fan Club a bit late. When Bourque played in his first all-star game, Norstrom was 9.

And when Bourque plays in his last, who knows how old Norstrom will be? Or Bourque, for that matter.

“This still excites me,” Bourque said. “I want to play as long as I can play.”

For whatever they call the all-star team.