Vancouver fishbowl may have pushed Bure out Jim Jamieson – The Province There may have been a lot of reasons why Pavel Bure wanted out of Vancouver. But Beth Novokshonoff believes a key factor was living in a fishbowl in a hockeymad Canadian city. Novokshonoff, who speaks Russian fluently, offered her services as an interpreter to the Canucks when the team was able to bring Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov to Vancouver in 1989. She also worked with the players’ wives to help them settle into their new city and did the same with Bure, whose English was spotty when he arrived in 1991 and had no experience of living on his own. “Vancouver was too small,” she said on Thursday. “Sometimes, people wouldn’t leave him alone.” It got so bad,” said Novokshonoff, that when Bure was living in his posh home on a walled property on Southwest Marine Drive in the latter part of his tenure in Vancouver, fans would sometimes scale the wall and knock on his window hoping to meet the Russian Rocket. She believes he was much more comfortable in Florida and, later, New York, where he could walk the streets and not be bothered. “There really was no privacy,” she said. “And Pavel was a really private person.” Novokshonoff said she really enjoyed getting to know Bure. “We had a lot of laughs with him,” she said. “When the Red Wings were in town, the Russian Five (Larionov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov and Vladimir Konstantinov) and Pavel and (Alexander) Mogilny would come over for to our place for dinner afterwards. Igor would do his impression of (dictatorial Team Russia coach Viktor) Tikhonov. I’ve never seen Pavel laugh so hard.”
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Vancouver fishbowl may have pushed Bure
out
Jim Jamieson – The Province
There may have been a lot of reasons why Pavel Bure wanted out of Vancouver.
But Beth Novokshonoff believes a key factor was living in a fishbowl in a hockeymad Canadian
city.
Novokshonoff, who speaks Russian fluently, offered her services as an interpreter to the Canucks
when the team was able to bring Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov to Vancouver in 1989.
She also worked with the players’ wives to help them settle into their new city and did the same
with Bure, whose English was spotty when he arrived in 1991 and had no experience of living on
his own.
“Vancouver was too small,” she said on Thursday.
“Sometimes, people wouldn’t leave him alone.”
It got so bad,” said Novokshonoff, that when Bure was living in his posh home on a walled
property on Southwest Marine Drive in the latter part of his tenure in Vancouver, fans would
sometimes scale the wall and knock on his window hoping to meet the Russian Rocket.
She believes he was much more comfortable in Florida and, later, New York, where he could
walk the streets and not be bothered.
“There really was no privacy,” she said. “And Pavel was a really private person.”
Novokshonoff said she really enjoyed getting to know Bure.
“We had a lot of laughs with him,” she said. “When the Red Wings were in town, the Russian
Five (Larionov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov and Vladimir Konstantinov)
and Pavel and (Alexander) Mogilny would come over for to our place for dinner afterwards. Igor
would do his impression of (dictatorial Team Russia coach Viktor) Tikhonov. I’ve never seen
Pavel laugh so hard.”
From Russia, with Larionov
Jim Jamieson – The Province
Compatriot and linemate helped Pavel Bure adjust to playing in Canada
It’s tempting to think that Pavel Bure simply fell out of the sky and instantly gave the Canucks
the killer goal scorer they’d always needed but never had.
Yes, Bure — who went on to become the franchise’s most exciting and greatest player — didn’t
take long to get there, but he was wracked with uncertainty as he began his NHL career in
Vancouver.
To the point where the player, who’ll have his jersey number retired at a formal ceremony before
Saturday’s game with Toronto, was concerned he might be sent down to the minors after he’d
failed to score after his first three games. Bure’s electrifying performance in his first NHL game
against the Jets is burned into Canucks’ fans memory banks, but he didn’t actually put the puck
in the net until Game 4 (twice).
“To be honest with you, he was troubled for a while,” Bure’s all-toobrief linemate and Russian
countryman Igor Larionov said over the phone from his home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
“He was actually worried (to start the season) because he didn’t score any goals. He was worried
they were going to send him down to the minors.”
Laughable as that sounds, Russian players coming to North America in 1991 didn’t make the
seamless transition they do now. The Soviet Union was about to break apart, but they’d all
grown up within its tight structure.
“When you are 20 years old and you come to North America, and it’s the first wave of Russian
players, myself and a couple other guys coming over in 1989, and Pavel was this baby-face,”
said Larionov, 52.
“To deal with a new lifestyle, new hockey in the NHL, it’s overwhelming for a young guy to
come and to do well.”
Larionov, who had been a teammate of Bure’s for one season on the Central Red Army team,
became the youngster’s mentor and hosted him in his North Vancouver home for the first few
weeks.
“I told Pavel, ‘Don’t worry, take your time,’ said Larionov. “It’s a game of patience. Just read
the play and the people around you.’ Not long after that, Pat (then GM/coach Quinn) put him
with myself and Greg Adams and we started to get the chemistry. From that point, the game was
so easy when you play it right.”
Bure actually scored three goals in those next two games, but — though he was a human
highlight reel — still had just seven goals in his first 30 games. But the Russian Rocket put it
into high gear following the NHL All-Star break in mid-January, scoring 27 goals in his final 35
games en route to overtaking favourite Tony Amonte for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top
rookie.
“After the All-Star game, I think the end of January, I said to him, ‘Pavel you’ve been around for
a couple of months, so now you have to calm down and listen,’” recalled Larionov. “I told him
it’s a game of skill, patience and commitment. Let me and Greg Adams do some stuff for you
that’s special. At that time he was chasing Tony Amonte, who he was behind by many, many
points. I said with the right approach to the game, you can catch him and be the top guy for the
season.”
Larionov left Vancouver the next season through a convoluted turn of events, and he went on to
a great NHL career that included three Stanley Cup rings with the Red Wings. But he admits he
wondered at the time how his chemistry with Bure would have turned out if the two had stayed
together.
“I knew the kid was getting very confident and he had a great future and I wanted to be part of
that,” said Larionov. “But circumstances took me in a different direction. I don’t regret it. I got
three Stanley Cups, but it would have been nice to have a couple more years playing alongside
and have the opportunity to lead this kid. But without me, he was gracious and a great hockey
player, a superstar.”
Larionov, who retired in 2004, said he has no doubt that Bure, 42 — who finally joined him into
the Hockey Hall of Fame last year — is right up there with the greatest players he’s seen in the
NHL.
“When you see a player in and out, in every city in the NHL and at his best,” he said. “All those
games at the Pacific Coliseum and then in others cities, in Florida and New York. You have a
chance to see the artist. You can see something special coming out every time. It’s a gift to be
able to understand the game right and to be in position to get the puck and score the goal. You
have to cherish that as a player, a teammate and a friend.
“As a fan, you spend all day long in your workplace and come to see the show, and it was
worthwhile because Pavel Bure was providing the entertainment.”
Larionov will be on hand for Saturday’s ceremony.
“He’s a good friend and my linemate,” he said. “So it’s going to be a special evening to be to
part of that kind of honour for Pavel and help him celebrate his accomplishment.”
Bowman, Quinn know Bure’s worth
Tony Gallagher – The Province
Pair instrumental in getting the Russian Rocket into Hall of Fame and having his jersey retired
There’s very little doubt the celebration of Pavel Bure’s jersey being retired Saturday night
would not be happening had he first not been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
And it’s extremely unlikely he’d be in the Hall today had it not been for Scotty Bowman and
selection committee chairman Pat Quinn, both of whom were instrumental in Bure getting at
least 14 of the 18 votes needed for induction.
Quinn is expected to accompany Bure to centre ice Saturday afternoon in what he says will be a
most happy duty, but Bowman, the man who originally nominated Bure long before he was ever
inducted, is visiting his daughter in Oakland this week and not expected to be here unless there
are some last-minute changes.
But the greatest coach in hockey history was happy to talk about the Russian Rocket while
expressing the opinion, which Quinn himself shares readily, that the hall of fame is supposed to
be for the whole world and other earlier Russian players, such as Anatoly Firsov and Boris
Mikhailev, should also be getting very serious consideration.
“He was a special player; those guys don’t come along too often,” Bowman said of Bure, having
coached against him when he was at his very best before he first injured his knee.
“In his prime he was the most prominent offensive player, for sure. He was pretty well
unstoppable. He knew when to leave (the defensive zone) and when to get the puck on the fly.
He was well named, the Russian Rocket.
“Those offensive players can smell out that opportunity, although you don’t score goals like that
without the extra ability that he had.
“I haven’t seen a lot of guys like him. Rocket Richard was a lot like that when I saw him when
he was in his prime, but it was a different game altogether, the guys then didn’t have the kind of
speed they do now.
“But he used to be able to get pucks on the fly and he had a good centreman. Pavel played with
Igor (Larionov) for a bit, didn’t he, but I don’t recall who played with him after that.”
Quite so. Nobody does. Even when he went to Florida he never really found a centre with whom
he had chemistry. Part of that was his style, which made him difficult to mesh with, but the
Canucks haven’t had much up the middle for decades. The present team is hardly an exception.
Imagine the numbers Bure might have put up had he been able to play more than one year with
Larionov, the two having such a great understanding on ice in their one year together.
Further, the Wayne Gretzky of Russian hockey would have been able to make life away from the
rink so much more comfortable for the young Bure, even though they embodied different views
of Russian society, Bure more the traditional Soviet, Larionov the more westernized version.
Quinn joked Thursday about having to fire Bowman if he had spoken about what goes on in the
Hall of Fame selection committee discussions, because that’s a no-no, but admitted he was glad
to see Bure get in and have his number raised Saturday.
“When you’ve got 18 people on a committee, quite frankly, you have 18 different opinions,” said
the man who probably should be in the Hall himself as a coach but can’t yet be a candidate
because he’s on the selection committee.
“There were a lot of things to consider with Pavel (his injury-shortened career foremost) but we
had precedent, first with maybe the best player of all time in Bobby Orr and then more recently
Cam Neely.”
Quinn lives in Vancouver and doesn’t miss much. He’s been hearing the various protests from
those who are not fans of Bure about having his number retired by the team, those arguments
essentially based on his desire to be traded.
And while using that as an illustration of how opinions differ on the committee as well, Quinn
showed he doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for that position.
“His departure from here, good or bad, should have no effect on the decision being made,” he
said.
“It may have affected individual people in some way, but players move for lots of reasons. I’m
not really sure what happened — I was gone by then — but it shouldn’t be part of the decision.”
Bowman was also keen to wonder out loud of how wonderfully effective Bure might have been
had he played when there was no red line.
“The Russian style has always been built around the forward, and their style was to have a guy
leave the zone early and he’d take a defenceman with him,” said Bowman. “I remember (former
Red Army coach) Anatoly Tarasov, talking with him one day after he’d watched a couple of our
practices in Montreal, asking me why we didn’t have (Guy) Lafleur leave early.
“The (NHL) teams are beginning to use the no-red line a little more now, but it surprises me how
little. Bure would have been something with Igor and no red line.”
It’s going to be even better to finally see Bure’s number join those of Markus Naslund, Trevor
Linden and Stan Smyl at Rogers Arena.
Russian Rocket remembered
Elliott Pap – The Vancouver Sun
Pavel Bure deserves to have number retired, ex- players say
Markus Naslund has an idea what Pavel Bure will experience on Saturday when the Russian
Rocket’s No. 10 will be raised to the rafters at Rogers Arena, never again to be worn by a
Vancouver Canuck player.
Naslund’s No. 19 was retired three years ago. His was the third number to be so honoured after
Stan Smyl’s No. 12 and Trevor Linden’s No. 16. Bure will be the fourth.
“It’s something you never expect when you’re in the middle of your active career and playing the
game,” said Naslund, who has flown in from Sweden to be part of the Bure festivities. “I think
it’s an outstanding honour for yourself and, if you do have a family, it means a lot to them, too.
It’s definitely a nice touch after you’ve finished your career.”
Naslund played two seasons with Bure from 1996- 98. Naslund was still an emerging star while
the Rocket was already a full- fledged force in the NHL, having twice scored 60 goals and won a
Calder Trophy. Bure’s electrifying career came as no surprise to Naslund.
“Pavel was definitely a unique player and I remember watching him even before he came over to
the NHL,” said Naslund. “I remember being in awe of the stuff he was doing, his ability to
combine his speed with his skill and the desire he had to score every time he got the puck.
“It was definitely something special — and it was great to have a chance to watch him closely
when I got traded to Vancouver.”
Smyl was honoured by the Canucks for his dogged determination and perseverance during 13
seasons in which the team never played above .500, although the Canucks did make one unlikely
trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 1982. Smyl had some excellent offensive seasons, too, once
scoring 78 and 88 points in back- to- back years. But even he admits he never had the natural
talent of the Russian Rocket.
“I know a lot of players like myself dreamed of doing the sorts of things Pavel did,” said Smyl,
who was an assistant coach with the Canucks during Bure’s seven seasons on the team. “I think
that’s the biggest thing I can remember about him is how exciting he was and the way he could
bring the fans out of their seats with his pure speed and what he could do with the puck.
“We probably haven’t had the success that we’ve wanted as a team and as an organization over
the years, but there are some players who have made an impact in the game just by pure numbers
and Pavel was one of those guys.”
Defenceman Dave Babych and Bure arrived in Vancouver the same season — 199192 — and
played nearly seven years together. They combined on some big moments, too. It was Babych
who passed to Jeff Brown, who then relayed to Bure for the Game 7 doubleovertime winner
against the Calgary Flames in the opening playoff round in 1994. Then it was Bure to Babych for
the winner in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the New York Rangers, keeping the
Canucks alive in the series when they were down 3- 1.
“Absolutely Pavel does deserve to have his jersey retired,” Babych stated. “That should be a
given, no doubt, just like him being in the Hall of Fame. It’s ridiculous for anyone to think
different.”
Like most hockey people, Babych was awestruck by Bure’s debut game in a Canuck uniform on
Nov. 5, 1991, when he went end- to- end several times against the Winnipeg Jets. Although the
Rocket didn’t score in that game, the floodgates soon opened and Bure went on to net 34 goals in
65 games and become NHL rookie of the year.
“No one knew what to expect when we got Pavel,” Babych recalled. “There are a lot of guys
who come over who aren’t seen by us, and we don’t have any information on them, but when
Pavel came in and you saw him go, you just knew there was something there that was special.
“He still had to prove himself even after that first game,” added Babych. “Speed was one thing
and then we realized his hands were just as fast and he could shoot just as hard as anyone. When
you put all that together, that’s a Hall of Famer right there. With Pavel, all you had to do was
give him the puck and watch him go. It was fun. And you know what? He was a terrific
teammate. He was one of the best teammates I ever had.”
Cliff Ronning played five seasons with the Russian Rocket and considers No. 10’ s jersey
retirement a “fabulous” thing.
“Pavel Bure was a player who changed the game,” said Ronning. “He was the Canucks’ first
superstar. I was fortunate to be on the team when he broke in and there was so much hype around
him. When he showed up at Britannia Arena for his first practice, it was utterly like a rock star
coming to town. It was amazing. We knew from his first practice, this kid is something else. He
skated like no one we had ever seen and he had great hands.
“I’m very excited for him that he’s having his jersey retired. I think it’s exciting for all of British
Columbia.”
The jersey retirement ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4 p. m. Saturday. Fans are asked to be in
their seats by 3: 45 p. m. Puck drop between the Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs will follow at
4: 20 p. m.
Ex- shadow Sullivan found Bure a handful
Brad Ziemer – The Vancouver Sun
It wasn’t exactly Mission Impossible, but it was close.
Mike Sullivan’s job in that epic 1994 playoff series between the Vancouver Canucks and
Calgary Flames — and unlike the TV show there was no option about choosing whether or not to
accept the assignment — was to shadow Pavel Bure.
“So I spent seven games chasing him around the rink trying to keep him off the scoreboard,
which was a big challenge,” Sullivan, the Canucks’ assistant coach, recalls with a smile nearly
20 years later.
Sullivan has a better appreciation than most of the pure offensive skill and dazzling speed of
Bure, whose No. 10 jersey will be raised to the rafters at Rogers Arena before Saturday
afternoon’s Canucks-Toronto Maple Leafs’ game.
Sullivan had been given his assignment by Flames head coach Dave King, who knew that if the
Flames could contain Bure — who had just completed his second straight 60- goal regular
season — they could beat the Canucks.
So he gave Sullivan his marching orders. He was to be Bure’s shadow. “That series, that was my
sole responsibility,” Sullivan says. “I spent the whole series trying to keep him off the board
five- on- five.”
That, of course, was easier said than done.
“Well, you know, he’s like a lot of players of his elite skill level in that they can lull you to sleep
and then they quick- strike you,” Sullivan says. “Mentally, you have to be in it all the time
because you think that the play might be 50, 60 feet away from him and you think he is going to
float here, he is not going to put on a burst of speed.
“But all he needs is half a step. He gets a half a step on you, he gets a half a step on anybody,
that’s all he needed. So I think that was the biggest challenge, trying to make sure you stayed
mentally sharp to try and deny him the puck before he got it. He was much more dangerous
when he had it. I found from that series that the best way to try and negate him was to deny him
the puck rather than trying to defend him when he had it. I tried to stay close.”
Sullivan, who played most of his 709 NHL games as a centre, was a left- winger in that series.
“The way it worked was whatever line was on and we saw Bure coming out, then the left wing
would change and I’d be the guy who’d jump on the ice,” Sullivan says.
Sullivan did quite a nice job of containing Bure early in the series. Through the first four games,
Bure had three assists, but no goals. More importantly, the Flames had a 3- 1 lead in the best- of-
seven series.
But Geoff Courtnall and Trevor Linden scored overtime winners in Games 5 and 6 to even the
series, setting the stage for Game 7 and Bure’s heroics. Most Canuck fans can tell you where
they were when Bure scored his doubleovertime winner in Game 7, a goal that is regarded by
many as perhaps the biggest in franchise history.
And Mike Sullivan can you where he was, too.
“I remember being on the bench, I couldn’t get on the ice,” says Sullivan, with still a tinge of
disappointment in his voice. “It was just one of those scenarios where we couldn’t get the change
and he ends up splitting our D and scores on a breakaway.”
Bure was fed a brilliant blueline to blue- line pass from defenceman Jeff Brown and beat Calgary
goalie Mike Vernon, who bit on his backhand deke.
“It was a terrific play and obviously it was very disheartening from our standpoint,” Sullivan
says. “We were up 3- 1 coming back to Calgary and for the most part I thought we did a pretty
good job of trying to limit his effectiveness. But he was that good of a player.”
Sullivan hopes he might have a chance to chat briefly with Bure, who finished that series with
three goals and eight points, before Saturday’s ceremony.
“I hope so,” he says. “I have never really exchanged words with him ever. I have just played
against him, obviously. I have a lot of admiration and respect for how good of a player he is.”
Luongo ‘shocked’ he wasn’t traded to the
Leafs
Mike Johnston – Sportsnet
Death, taxes and Roberto Luongo trade talk.
It’s widely known that the Toronto Maple Leafs, as well as several other teams, attempted to
acquire Luongo from the Vancouver Canucks prior to the 2013 NHL Draft. However, a deal to
send Luongo out of town never came to fruition and the Canucks shipped their other netminder,
Cory Schneider, to the New Jersey Devils instead.
If you bought into the rumours and reports at the time, the Leafs were the frontrunners to land
Luongo. The 2010 Olympic gold medallist firmly believed he was on his way to the centre of the
hockey universe.
“I was pretty sure I was going to end up there. I was pretty shocked and surprised when I didn’t,”
Luongo told the Toronto Sun.
Before joining the Leafs organization as director of hockey operations in 2008, Dave Nonis – the
Leafs current general manager – was the Canucks GM and the man who brought Luongo to
Vancouver. In 2006, Nonis acquired Luongo from the Florida Panthers in what was considered a
one-sided trade. Nonis was unsuccessful in acquiring the Montreal native for a second time,