The Russian Rocket
Squire Barnes - - West Coast Winds
Spring - 1992
During the see-saw battle that was the playoff series versus Winnipeg, much was made of Don Cherry's assessment of Bure. "He's a little weasel," claimed Hockey Night in Canada's resident red-neck, Russian-hating commentator. Bure made Cherry eat his words in Game Five with a goal and three assists and, if there was any shred of doubt left, put the icing on the cake with a hat-trick in Game Six.
Not only did the Russian Rocket shine in the recent game with Winnipeg, but he really began to sparkle a few months ago. The date: November 5, 1991. The place: Pacific Coliseum. The time: during the second period. The combatants: the Winnipeg Jets and the Vancouver Canucks. The new kid, wearing jersey number #10, gathers the puck inside his own zone, dekes a Jet at the blueline, puts it in overdrive and literally streaks past two more Winnipeg defenders. At lightening speed, he puts moves on goalie Rick Tabaracci and comes within a hair's breadth of scoring his first NHL goal.
The entire shift was, in a word, electrifying. Canuck fans literally had to catch their breath before beginning an awestruck buzz that permeated the entire building. They had just witnessed Pavel Bure in his first of dozens of rink-length dashes which would leave fans and opposing players alike shaking their heads in amazement throughout the NHL in the 1991-92 season.
Following a series of whirlwind moves to sift through all the legal red tape and international stumbling blocks, the 20-year-old right winger selected in the sixth round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft was finally a Canuck. And what a Canuck!
Here's what folks have said about Bure this season:
- "He's only 5'10", 180 lbs., but he can bench-press Leningrad" - veteran hockey writer Frank Orr.
- He has 5.8% body-fat, less than most Olympic athletes - Canuck trainer, Larry Ashley.
And consider this: many of the action photos taken by Canuck team photographer Jack Murray show Bure with both feet off the ice! Media types have taken to calling him Pavel "Blurry," an apt description, because he appears to almost fly.
Before the NHL Players' strike was declared, Bure had terrorized enemy netminders with 31 goals (six of which were game-winners), collected 25 assists and bombarded them with 246 shots - and that included the fact that he missed the first 15 games of the season. And while observers were touting Tony Amonte of the New York Rangers and Nicklas Lidstrom of Detroit Red Wings for NHL Rookie-of-the-Year, Canuck followers were convinced the most deserving candidate for the Calder Trophy wears #10 and plays right here in Vancouver.
Asked to describe his freshman campaign in the National Hockey League, the blond speedster replies in his ever-improving English: "Unbelievable." And most Canuck fans would likely use the same adjective to describe Pavel Blurry... 'er... sorry, BURE!
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It's a landslide for Bure
Poll reveals Russian Rocket is easy rookie-of-the-year winner
by Tony Gallagher - - The Province
May 31, 1992
You hear a lot of predictions, rumors and speculation around NHL circles.
Some of it is well-founded and to get the right connections can male one look a genius. There is also the possibility of acting the goof.
Take the recent speculation Mike Keenan would be interested in leaving Chicago and heading to home in Toronto to take the coaching job with a promise of g.m. in three years. A day later, Pat Burns is hired by Cliff Fletcher in the centre of the universe.
But then, it was the same source which predicted Burns would never last in Montreal after the lethal playoff against Boston. There is something of a rumor tradeoff.
So much for speculation. This prediction you can take to the Safeway and spend. You heard it here first. Pavel Bure is the NHL rookie of the year.
An extensive, informal survey of the writers filling out ballots in the voting for rookie of the year has made it abundantly clear the Russian Rocket is over the top. It is not close. It's landslide city and the Canucks will be paying out his bonus money - quite happily, as it turns out.
Bure wil receive and extra $50,000 from the Canucks, and then another $25,000 per year for the remaining three years of his contract.
His victory is so much like Gary Suter's '86 win. All season long he battled Wendel Clark and the assumption was always the eastern media in Toronto would not give the slimy westerner a sniff.
This year it was Nicklas Lidstrom and Tony Amonte who were runaway leaders, particularly the latter. Amonte was going to win because of his goals, the success of his team and the provincialism of the eastern, particularly the New York, voters.
Upsetting though this may be to some, Bure swept New York. Eastern bigotry is on the wane, at least within the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
If anything, a reverse discrimination seemed to pop up, with Amonte getting the shaft. And there is the fact Bure deserves to be the winner based purely on merit, given he missed 15 games and was eased into offensive and power-play situations slowly by coach Pat Quinn.
Bure also does not have to worry about winning based on vote-splitting between Lidstrom and Amonte. While both did get a few first-place votes, Bure topped the bill on so many, splitting was not a factor.
The strange part about the voting is that either Bure or Amonte will not be on the all-rookie team. Only one spot exists at right wing with Kevin Todd and Gilbert Dionne shoe-ins at centre and left wing, respectively. And with the voters for all-stars in most cities completely different than the Calder Trophy voters, either player could be left off the rookie team. And while it will be unjust for either player, it won't be anybody's fault given the criteria of the voting.
Bure becomes the first Canuck to win a major NHL award, the best previous finish being Trevor Linden's Calder Trophy runner-up status in '89 and, of course, Quinn's first Adams award in Philly in '80.
The credit is shared. Quinn, Bure's linemates Greg Adams and Igor Larionov, and the rest of the Canucks should all take a bow.
And of course, those fair-minded easterners.
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