Chris and Ryan Bourque sit side by side in the Bridgeport Sound Tigers locker room and are roommates on the road. Together as teammates for the third time in their hockey careers, the two forwards are each other’s best friends and biggest supporters.
It wasn’t always that way. When they were kids growing up in the Boston area, Chris enjoyed making his younger brother’s life miserable.
“There’s a five-year age difference, so I wasn’t the nicest older brother to him,” Chris, 33, said. “He was usually playing goalie and getting tortured by me and my friends for about five to 10 years.”
Being harassed by Chris didn’t deter Ryan from looking up to him. If anything, the pestering aided him, and the effects of those days are still being felt in the present.
“Ryan’s a very hard worker and very passionate,” Chris said. “His best attributes are the ways he plays out there, how he skates and how hard he plays. I don’t know if that’s from me torturing him, but it wasn’t easy for him growing up playing with me and my friends, I’ll tell you that much. It was definitely a battle for him at some points. But it was all in good fun. It definitely made him more of a competitor.”
When Ryan was older and allowed to remove his goalie gear, he followed in Chris’ footsteps as a forward, not their dad’s as a defenseman. This was despite the fact that their father, Ray, enjoyed a 22-year National Hockey League career as a Hockey Hall of Fame blueliner with the Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche, whom he was traded to in March 2000 en route to winning his only Stanley Cup, in 2001.
“We moved to Colorado when I was 10 years old, and that’s when I fell in love with the game,” Ryan, 28, remembered. “We always looked up to our old man, but he was a defenseman, so the guy I looked up to was Chris. I tried to do everything like him; I wore the same equipment and used the same sticks as him, taped my sticks the way he did and wore my equipment the way he did. I always followed him around. I’m sure he was plenty annoyed with me in the early years, but over the course of our careers, too, there are a lot of similarities. I followed in his footsteps to Cushing Academy and also played in the same minor-league systems as him, which you see with a lot of brothers.”
After two campaigns at Cushing, Chris was taken 33rd overall in the 2004 NHL draft by the Washington Capitals. He then played one season at Boston University before beginning his professional career, which has seen stops in North America with the Portland Pirates (American Hockey League), Hershey Bears (AHL), with whom he was a member of three Calder Cup championship teams (2006, 2009, 2010), Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, Bruins, Providence Bruins (AHL), Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL) and Sound Tigers (AHL). He also spent two seasons overseas and represented the United States at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
As of Feb. 21, the 5-foot-8, 180-pounder, who’s a six-time AHL All-Star (2009, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) and winner of the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the 2010 AHL playoffs MVP and Les Cunningham Award as the 2015-16 AHL MVP, has 733 points (246-487-733) in 775 career AHL regular-season games, 117 points (35-82-117) in 133 career AHL playoff contests and eight points (2-6-8) in 51 career NHL games.
Meanwhile, Ryan, after two seasons at Cushing, departed for the U.S. National Team Development Program, where he played from 2007-09 before being selected 80th overall in the 2009 NHL draft by the New York Rangers. He then played a pair of seasons with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Quebec Remparts before joining the Connecticut Whale (AHL) for the 2011-12 campaign.
In addition to the Whale and Wolf Pack — the name which the Whale reverted back to before the 2013-14 season — Ryan, 5-10, 176 pounds, has skated for the Rangers, with whom he played his only NHL game, Bears and Sound Tigers. He has 186 points (77-109-186) in 519 career AHL regular-season contests and nine points (4-5-9) in 47 career AHL playoff games, as of Feb. 21.
The brothers played against each other in a meaningful game for the first time during Ryan’s rookie AHL season when the Whale hosted the Bears on Nov. 29, 2011.
“It was definitely a little weird,” Ryan recalled. “That was the first time we were on the same ice in a competitive environment. It was definitely special for the whole family.”
Chris, who had a goal and an assist that night, added, “It was unbelievable. Not too many people get the chance to play professional hockey, never mind playing with or against your brother. It was awesome.”
The brothers continued to butt heads on the rink when their teams met for the rest of that season and the next one, when Chris was with Providence.
“We got used to facing off real quick,” Ryan said.
Chris departed for his second and final stint overseas during the 2013-14 campaign, but upon his return for the 2014-15 season, he signed with the Rangers and was assigned to Hartford, which marked the first time the Bourque brothers were teammates.
“When he was in Europe that year, he had the opportunity to be able to come back and pick where he wanted to go,” Ryan explained. “When he realized New York was on the map, it was a no-brainer. We had an amazing time that year, both on and off the ice. We had a good team and we were able to go pretty far (Eastern Conference finals). Off the ice, I lived with him and his wife, Kim, who was pregnant. Their other son, Kingston, is my godson. It was a surreal experience to share together and something we look back on.”
Chris was back with the Bears the following season, which meant the brothers’ rivalry was back in full force.
However, that ended just before the 2016 NHL trade deadline when Ryan was traded from the Rangers to the Capitals, since he actually went from Hartford to Hershey.
The Bears ended up powering through the playoffs and reaching the finals, where they were swept by the Lake Erie Monsters.
Ending aside, the march to the championship round goes down as both brothers’ favorite moment as teammates.
“We grinded it out in five games, which is pretty much Game 7, against Portland,” Ryan recounted. “Then we grinded it out in seven games against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who were our rivals. That was a crazy series. Then we had time in between series, gathering, regrouping and spending time together in the spring time, which was special, before we played against the Toronto Marlies, the best team in the league that year. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get it done in the finals, but that whole run was pretty surreal and really cool.”
“We had a great team, good chemistry in the locker room, and Ryan was a big part of that,” Chris said. “He put us over the hump, helping out with the penalty kill and being the type of player that he is — a good playoff player who rises to the occasion. That run was awesome, special and definitely something that we will always remember.”
The two brothers lived together during that season and the playoff run, but for the first time as teammates didn’t reside in the same house when they both played for the Bears during the 2016-17 campaign.
They weren’t too far apart, though.
“I lived right near him,” said Ryan, who still had a roommate. “We were neighbors.”
The sibling rivalry resumed during the 2017-18 season when Ryan played for Bridgeport.
And it was during that campaign when Ryan experienced what he labels his favorite moment opposing Chris.
On Nov. 26, 2017, the Sound Tigers visited Hershey and the brothers accounted for all four regulation goals, with each Bourque netting a pair. Ultimately, Ryan’s club came out on top as Bridgeport prevailed in the shootout.
“That was pretty cool,” Ryan said of that game. “I didn’t go in the shootout; he did and scored. But we ended up winning, so that was a bonus with the two points.”
The result ended any chance of the game serving as Chris’ favorite moment opposing his brother.
“I don’t like when we lose,” he stated.
Instead, Chris’ top moment with his brother wearing the opposition’s jersey occurred when he tallied the overtime winner to give the host Bears a win over Ryan’s Wolf Pack on Oct. 24, 2015.
“I don’t think he was too happy about that,” Chris said of Ryan.
Teammates again this season after they signed with the Sound Tigers last July, the Bourque brothers share the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory together. And, regardless of result, both of them are proud of each other’s accomplishments both at and away from the rink.
Said Chris: “Every single person can learn from Ryan — the player he is, his work ethic, the way he works out there, the way he competes. He never takes a shift off. He’s a complete team player, blocking shots and doing things the right way. It’s fun to have him on our team. I’m proud of the career that he’s had.
“And he’s getting married this summer and is going to start a family. To see the man that he’s become is awesome. It’s a great joy for me and my family to be a part of that.”
Concluded Ryan: “Chris has been a rink rat his whole life. What comes to mind is his love for the game — the passion, the devotion — and his skill-set and the talent that he possesses. You saw it from a young age. The person and the player that he’s developed into is something I have the most respect in the world for. He’s developed into one of the best players of all time in this league. In my opinion, he’s the best player in the league, even at his age, which in this league is a little older. His whole life he had dreams and aspirations to play at the highest level, and he did that, too.
“I’m most proud of the dad and the husband that he’s transitioned into. I can look up to him in hockey all I want, but those things and what he’s been able to grow with his family I look up to as well. The player and the man that he’s grown into is something I respect and is really cool to see.”
