Flames teammates OK with Bourque's crime

[jayc948]

Flames teammates OK with Bourque's crime

Rene Bourque pleads guilty to all charges related to his mugging of Washington Capitals defenceman Tyler Sloan Tuesday before 19,289 witnesses at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Fighting? Guilty. Instigating? Guilty. Throwing punches with a visor on? Guilty.

But pre-mediation? Not guilty.

To the Calgary Flames winger, the entire incident rates as a crime of passion.

"It happened so fast, that play out on the ice," Bourque said Wednesday before boarding the flight to Nashville. "I didn't even really think about it. It was kind of just a reaction. There wasn't much thought."

From the corner of his eye, Bourque saw Sloan plaster Calgary centre Daymond Langkow with an open-ice hit at the Washington blueline.

Bourque didn't even have time to take a number. He just saw red, white and blue.

"I came at him so fast that I don't think he was prepared," Bourque said. "He didn't have time to fight back. He just wanted to wrestle and get it over with."

Full

[Colt Seavers]

Here are some great quotes from the players invloved. They all reinforce what was stated in some of the posts in this thread.

"I came at him so fast that I don't think he was prepared," Bourque said. "He didn't have time to fight back. He just wanted to wrestle and get it over with."

"I don't think it was a cheapshot or anything," Bourque said. "But any time one of your best players gets hit like that, I think you have to take a stand.

"You have to send a message that if you're going to hit our best players, then we'll come after your guys too."

So why go after someone for playing within the rules?

"Hey, we're going to stand up for each other," Conroy said. "We're going to have everyone's back. Prust did it with MacIntyre the other night. Bourque did it with Sloan.

"It just makes a huge difference. It gives a team confidence. We know that no matter what happens, we're in this together. We're all going to work hard and protect each other."

"He did it for the team, so we've got to kill it," Conroy said. "You've got to have that mentality all the time, but for whatever reason, those are the ones we're usually able to kill off and go from there.
He did it for the team. He didn't do it to be selfish. He didn't take a lazy penalty. He did it to protect one of the guys.

"That's a rallying cry."