Oct 10, 2008 - 6:20 AM
0 shoutsBy Bill Bernardi PA SportsTicker Staff Writer
Alex Burrows nearly cried.
Hockey players aren't conditioned to do that, but amid a pregame ceremony to honor his fallen friend, Burrows did his best to deny the understandable.
He had just watched a touching video tribute to former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luc Bourdon, whose life came to an abrupt end at the tender age of 21 following a motorcycle accident in Lameque, New Brunswick on May 29.
He had just listened to the musical accompaniment of eight-time Juno Award winner Tom Cochrane, who sang "Big League" as images of Bourdon played on the big screen.
And Burrows did so in the presence of Bourdon's mother, grandmother, uncle, aunt and girlfriend - not to mention the 18,630 at General Motors Place on Thursday.
"Luc really helped me to get through this tough challenge," Burrows said after scoring twice in the Canucks' 6-0 triumph over the Calgary Flames in the season-opener for both teams.
"He was helping us out tonight, that's for sure."
Whether Vancouver was in need of a helping hand is a conversation for another time.
To a man, the Canucks came to honor a fallen teammate, one who held great promise within the organization.
Selected 10th overall in the 2005 draft, Bourdon scored two goals in 27 games with the Canucks this past season. The defenseman was also an integral part of Canada's gold-medal winning team at the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship. The 6-2, 211-pounder also helped Canada win gold at the 2007 tournament in Sweden.
After the ceremony, Vancouver's last line of defense served up the ultimate tribute to a fallen friend.
Goaltender Roberto Luongo, who stopped the 25 shots he faced for his 39th career shutout - but this wasn't a run-of-the-mill performance for the captain.
"It was not easy, that's for sure," Luongo said. "Especially seeing Luc's family there, that was probably the toughest thing. Seeing him wear the Canucks jersey in the video, that's really hard. I had to fight back tears watching those things. You try to take that emotion and carry it over to the game and change it into positive energy."
Burrows did just that.
He scored the first of his two goals 1:57 into the second period to give Vancouver a three-goal bulge.
After using his considerable speed to skate through the neutral zone, Ryan Kesler alertly fed Burrows, who quickly slipped the puck by goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.
Burrows gave the Canucks a 4-0 lead 2:48 into the third period after Ryan Johnson took advantage of a defensive breakdown by the Flames and corralled the puck inside the blue line. Johnson quickly dished to Burrows, who unleashed a slap shot that beat Kiprusoff for his second goal of the game.
Individual success aside, Burrows wished to deflect the praise to his teammates.
"It's a special night for everyone in this locker room. Luc was one of my best friends last year on the team, but a lot of teammates here were really tight with him, too," Burrows said. "I think everybody showed up and played a good game. It was an emotional night for us, but I think once we got going and got our legs going and played a good game, I think we responded pretty well."
Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault agreed.
"The last couple of days have been really emotional on a number of levels, not just because of opening night but because of the special tribute to Luc," he said. "I thought our guys handled it really well, not because of the outcome, but we were ready and prepared and focused. I'm really proud of how they handled themselves on a very challenging day.
"Very happy with the fans' reaction to Luc's tribute and the video. The first time we showed it to the whole company, at the end of the video, there wasn't a sound in the place. I was happy that the people understood that what we were looking for was to acknowledge Luc's life and make that a special day for his mother and his girlfriend and his family over there."
On all accounts, a job well done.
