As requested by Darren.
PAVEL BURE
Bure after being traded to the Dark Side
Pavel Bure was picked 113th overall in the 6th round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks, out of the Central Red Army of Russia. His first season with the Canucks was 1991-92, at the end of which he was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie player.
He is considered by many to be a big part of why Vancouver nearly won the 1994 Stanley Cup (JE ME SOUVIENS) after he recorded several 60 pt. seasons, and consistently dominated the ice with his unique (and somewhat flashy) scoring technique. He also went on to play in several All Star games.
Eventually, he decided he was not going to skate in Vancouver anymore, and in 1999, took his toys and went to Florida to join the Panthers. Ew. Then he went to the Rangers in 2002. EW.
Eventually, his career as a player ended in 2005, due to the after effects of a knee injury sustained in 2003 (or it may have been the broken engagement with Anna Kournikova… we’ll never know. She ended up with Enrique Iglesias. Ouch. As REM would say, everybody hurts sometimes.)
There have been all sorts of weird rumours surrounding Pavel in Vancouver: he wore lipgloss (okay, I started that one); he was bisexual and romantically involved with Marc Messier (I didn’t start that one, though it sounds like I might have); and that the real reason he left the Canucks was that he could never quite get his hair to do that adorable curly thing like Trevor Linden’s does (I made that one up.)
I’m not a huge fan — I tend to shy away from primadonna players, as gorgeous as their efforts may be at times. I like the ones who balance elegance with a touch more grit.
I will say this for Pavel Bure — when he was on, he was ON. His style of play was crazy effortless at times, much like currently NHL wunderkind, Alexander Ovechkin. Sadly, however, I think “effortless” eventually translated into a lack of effort, and his career fizzled out rather unnecessarily as a result.
Sure, sure… the injury. But I think his heart left the game a couple years before he did.
On a completely related-yet-unrelated note, Pavel’s fellow hockey-playing brother, Valeri, is now married to Kirk Cameron’s (of Growing Pains and Left Behind fame) sister Candace (of Full House fame — though according to IMDB, she was also in Punky Brewster (!) TJ Hooker (!!) and Who’s the Boss (!!!)
Damn.
External links:
Pavel Bure stats page at his fan club
Pavel Bure’s NHL.com page
The cover of a book on Pavel Bure, in which he looks rather slinky
A haunting photo of Kirk Cameron, just because
I love this entry.. and I love Pavel. Pavel and Trevor together…those were the glory days.
oohhh the good old days. It was soooo exciting to watch Pavel play. We’ll ever see another like him even tho we need one sooooo badly. He drew us in like magnets then left us forever mortally wounded, all for the sake of a U.S. dollar.
Thanks for that–it did not disappoint. The thing I loved about Bure, and the thing that made him great, was that he was utterly fearless. He had a top speed faster than anybody in the league, and he’d wield it with wild abandon. That, of course, led to the injuries that slowed him down in later years.
Indeed, his effort was inconsistent. Still, he was exceptionally fun to watch. I had a chance to see Ovechkin when he was in town last year, and he’s similar (though bigger and stronger)–incredibly quick, and a threat to do something magical on every shift.