Bourque looks to bounce back
‘I didn’t have the start I wanted here’
Rene Bourque isn’t making any excuses for his performance with the Canadiens last season.
Bourque, who was one of a dozen Canadiens on the ice at the team’s training facility in Brossard on Wednesday, said the abdominal problems that resulted in late-summer surgery first surfaced shortly before Montreal acquired him in the Jan. 12 trade that sent Michael Cammalleri to Calgary.
But Bourque said he wasn’t going to use the injury as an excuse for a drop in his production. After scoring 13 goals in 38 games with the Flames, Bourque managed only five in the same number of games with Montreal. He finished the season with 24 points, his lowest production in four seasons.
Bourque came under fire from coaches, fans and media, and when asked Wednesday whether he felt the criticism was unfair replied: “Not really.”
“Obviously, I didn’t have the start I wanted here,” Bourque added. “You think about it a lot over the summer and prepare yourself for the next season. With the changes here, with some fresh faces in the lineup, I’m really excited about this team. I’m ready to get going. I feel good about myself on the ice. I don’t think you’ll see how I was playing last year.”
Bourque averaged 25 goals a season in his three years before arriving in Montreal and says he considers last season an aberration.
“I’m not worried about that,” he said. “I know I’ll be better than that. I think I have something to prove to the people here and to the organization. I have confidence in myself and I know I’m still a good player.”
Bourque said he played through his injury.
“It started bothering me just before I got here,” he said. “It was sort of lingering. Some days it was good, some days it was bad. I tried to rehab it throughout the summer, but it wouldn’t get better. Finally, it looked like we were going to have a lockout and I talked to (general manager Marc Bergevin) and we decided to get the surgery done. Selfishly, the timing worked out well for me and I’ve had time to recover.”
The Canadiens’ team physician, David Mulder, is the go-to guy in the National Hockey League for this type of surgery and performed the operation on Bourque in late August.
“It took a little longer than we all expected for the rehab,” said Bourque, who was cleared for action shortly before Christmas. “I couldn’t do anything for three or four weeks and then I started building the core muscles. The trainers did a good with the rehab, Dr. Mulder did a good job with the surgery. I don’t feel it anymore. There’s no pain and I’m fully recovered.”
Bourque said he’s looking forward to playing for new head coach Michel Therrien.
“I think he’s the type of coach our team needed,” Bourque said. “He’s a no-non- sense coach and he’s going to be hard on us when he has to be. I think we need that here.”
Wednesday marked the first time the players were allowed in their own dressing room in Brossard since the lockout began on Sept. 15. There was a core group of players who stayed in Montreal during the lockout and their numbers were bolstered by the return of David Desharnais and Yannick Weber from Switzerland and Dane Lars Eller, who was playing in Finland.
More players will be arriving over the next couple of days to participate in the workouts. While the players are permitted to use the ice, gym and dressing-room facilities in Brossard, they can’t communicate with team personnel until the players ratify the new collective bargaining agreement. That process is expected to begin Thursday with the formal opening of training camp on Sunday. That gives the team six days to prepare for a Jan. 19 season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre.
“It’s always good to come back home,” Desharnais said. “Playing in Switzerland was a great experience, but it’s different. It’s a controlled breakout, there’s not much forechecking and you bring the puck back a lot more.”
For Weber, playing in Switzerland was going home and he said he enjoyed playing in front of his parents. He said he thought his 32-game stint with Genève Servette was good preparation for the coming season.
Weber faces a major challenge in camp with Raphael Diaz, Francis Bouillon, Tomas Kaberle, Weber and possibly Frédéric St. Denis and Jarred Tinordi battling for the final three roster spots on defence.