Role of Bourque Is Now a Cameo

Ray Bourque remembers his first NHL All-Star game fondly.

“It was like, ‘Wow, look at Gretzky,’ ” he said Saturday. “Scotty Bowman was coach, and I remember he had a pin on his sports jacket that was from my hometown.

“It was pretty weird, actually, getting a chance to play with some of the players from Montreal that I had watched for years.”

Bourque, 39, will play today in his 18th consecutive All-Star game. When he saw Gretzky and Bowman, he was 21 and playing in his first. That was before he had scars over his upper lip, before the miles he has skated on NHL ice numbered in the thousands.

The faces have changed.

Bourque was a second-year defenseman with the Boston Bruins then, skating with the now-retired Gretzky.

Bourque was skating with the Kings’ Triple Crown line, which included Dave Taylor, now the team’s senior vice president and general manager; skating with eight players on the rosters for Saturday night’s Heroes of Hockey old-timers game.

Now he’s a Bruin elder statesman, skating with rookie Scott Gomez of New Jersey and Paul Kariya of the Mighty Ducks.

The places have changed.

Bourque’s first All-Star game was in the Great Western Forum, and you can rent it as a movie set now. Today’s game is in the Air Canada Centre, among hockey’s newest attempts at regenerating tradition.

The view has changed.

For the first time since 1986, when fans began voting for the starters, Bourque will be on the bench for the opening faceoff.

The Kings’ Rob Blake will be on the ice, having edged Bourque by 1,194 votes among the millions cast.

But the viewpoint remains the same.

“The first game is real special,” Bourque said. “It’s new and you’re kind of awed. It means you’re doing something special. . . . After a while you become comfortable coming into the games and you take it for what it is. You’re honored and privileged to be here with the best in the league.”

Bourque, the North American All-Stars’ captain, will watch Blake, who has been watching Bourque since his first All-Star game in 1994.

“I think he is [the standard for defensemen], him and some of the others here,” Blake said. “ He’s one of the guys I still look up to.”

But for how much longer?

Bourque’s 18th appearance will tie Gretzky for second-most in NHL history, behind Gordie Howe’s 23, which is not in danger.

Bourque is a perennial all-star who never assumes perennial is forever.

The reason he’s here has more to do with who he is than the 30 points he has for the struggling Bruins.

“I’ve been around a long time and I’ve conducted myself in a certain way, I think being respected among hockey players and fans as well,” Bourque said. “I think that goes a long way.”