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Luc Bourdon's Potential


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6 hours ago, bloodycanuckleheads said:

At his draft, it looked like he was destined to be a top-2 defenseman.  But, by the time he died, 2nd or 3rd pairing seemed a lot more likely.

You clearly missed him chasing down Alex Ovechkin from behind and breaking up a breakaway without taking a penalty... that totally screams 3rd pair defenseman. :rolleyes:

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3 minutes ago, Kevin Biestra said:

Does talking about him as a hockey player really disturb his peace though?

Let it go. There are a lot of topics besides former Canuck's that have passed on. It's an honour thing. Him,Ryp,Quinn all of them deserve our respect for their contributions and not to be put up for debate in order to entertain because of a slow news day. 

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18 minutes ago, Hairy Kneel said:

Let it go. There are a lot of topics besides former Canuck's that have passed on. It's an honour thing. Him,Ryp,Quinn all of them deserve our respect for their contributions and not to be put up for debate in order to entertain because of a slow news day. 

I'm sorry but that's nonsense.  Gordie Howe doesn't turn over in his grave if you discuss his legacy on the ice.

 

Frankly, I think Luc Bourdon's status as one of the fairly short list of people to ever be drafted in the first round in the NHL and/or play in the NHL at all is something that earns him the right to be discussed as that level of hockey player.  If he's not being disrespected blatantly, then it is no disservice to him at all to discuss the topic.  And that includes discussing it honestly if there were faults to his game, and no player is perfect.

 

And none of us escape death.  Not you, not me, not Luc Bourdon.  I wish I'd had the stuff to make it to the NHL level.  And if I had, when my time came, early or otherwise, I'd hope people would be interested in discussing my play on the ice a decade after I was gone.

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12 minutes ago, Kevin Biestra said:

I'm sorry but that's nonsense.  Gordie Howe doesn't turn over in his grave if you discuss his legacy on the ice.

 

Frankly, I think Luc Bourdon's status as one of the fairly short list of people to ever be drafted in the first round in the NHL and/or play in the NHL at all is something that earns him the right to be discussed as that level of hockey player.  If he's not being disrespected blatantly, then it is no disservice to him at all to discuss the topic.  And that includes discussing it honestly if there were faults to his game, and no player is perfect.

 

And none of us escape death.  Not you, not me, not Luc Bourdon.  I wish I'd had the stuff to make it to the NHL level.  And if I had, when my time came, early or otherwise, I'd hope people would be interested in discussing my play on the ice a decade after I was gone.

Gordie Howe lived to see his dream fulfilled. The difference is the basis on conjecture not facts. Gordie got to live his dream and people like Luc or Rypien are stories fraught with tragedy and not fully about sport like Gordie Howe.

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8 minutes ago, Hairy Kneel said:

Gordie Howe lived to see his dream fulfilled. The difference is the basis on conjecture not facts. Gordie got to live his dream and people like Luc or Rypien are stories fraught with tragedy and not fully about sport like Gordie Howe.

Well, you said that Pat Quinn deserves our respect and not to be debated or discussed.  So if you take your kid to a Canucks game and he sees Pat Quinn in a suit in the Ring of Honour and asks you if he played hockey too, you say yes.  And then if your kid asks how good he was, do you reply in a hushed tone, "Sshhhh, we don't talk about that."  I would say THAT is the disservice to Pat Quinn, because then your kid will assume he sucked.  The honest answer is that he was a substantially above average stay-at-home defenseman.

 

"Sssshhh, we don't talk about that" is the response when your kid asks why you don't invite your pedophile uncle to Thanksgiving.  It doesn't need to be brought out for the careers of hockey players that have passed on, even if the careers and lives were brief.

 

The stories of Luc and Rypien are sad, but how is the next generation to learn what it is they are supposed to be honouring and respecting if we can't even honestly talk about them as people and/or as players.  You said that their contributions should be honoured.  I agree, but how are people to even know what those contributions were if we dismiss the topic and instead only say a few quick words about them being a good human being.  Bourdon's contributions to the team were brief and gone too soon, just like he was gone too soon off the ice.  One of the great tragedies was his lost potential, for a happy life and for a good NHL career.  How good of a career?  Who knows, because we're not allowed to talk about it.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Kevin Biestra said:

You listed him with Luc and Rypien earlier as part of a group who is out of bounds for these kinds of discussions.

You know what I meant though about Luc and Rypien. Quinn was a success story like Howe and has had books written about him. Bringing up Luc and Rypien seems of negative value for hockey talk on CDC seems more like a HF topic.

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Just now, Hairy Kneel said:

You know what I meant though about Luc and Rypien. Quinn was a success story like Howe and has had books written about him. Bringing up Luc and Rypien seems of negative value for hockey talk on CDC seems more like a HF topic.

Well, I respect your right to feel that way about discussing hockey players who died young as hockey players.  I just feel differently about it, and hope that such discussions aren't stifled or censored.

 

Like most people I imagine, I've seen more death than I would like, and I have lost more people than I would like.  I don't really see it as dishonorable to discuss deceased members of my own family, what their achievements and potential were, what the lost potential might have been, their achievements in their professions and not just "as human beings" and other such matters.

 

It's been many years, but I still occasionally think about what Pelle Lindbergh might have done in the NHL.

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From what I remember, he was making strides before that off-season. He even ripped a slapper that went through the net, which you never see.

 

 

I don't see anything wrong with OP asking this question either. It isn't disrespectful to discuss him. Nobody is here to say anything negative, just to talk about what his potential was.

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It's not disrespectful, but it's speculation that can't be really supported. So what's the point? 

I do know that had we never lost him, Gillis would probably not have made the Ballard trade. 

And we'd have one less problem on the backend.


Would he have been the difference in the Stanley Cup run? No idea. 

What if Ohlund and Malhotra never suffered eye injuries?

What if the Canucks never traded Neely, and used that 1st round pick to draft Sakic?

What if Larionov when he returned to the NHL chose Vancouver not San Jose? 

What if in 1999 we drafted Ryan Miller instead of Ryan Thorpe in the 5th Round?

 

You can what if all you want. Doesn't change the fact a young life was lost, and his loss not just as a hockey player but a human being was horrible. 

RIP Luc. 

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