Chris Bourque: 2015-16 Season in Review

chris bourque hershey bears-2

I wrote an opinion article on June 30, 2015, entitled “Is It Time For Chris Bourque to Return to Hershey?” Bears fans were still mourning a second round playoff exit at the hands of Bourque and his team, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Bourque was less than 24 hours from becoming a free agent and for the first time in three seasons, there was a real possibility of Bourque returning to Chocolate Town.

Wouldn’t you know it, I woke up late on the second day of free agency and was worried I missed something. So I unlocked my phone and opened Twitter right away. One of the first tweets I saw was from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton blogger Jason Iacona (awesome guy, by the way. Go check out his stuff if you’ve never read his site before,) and it read “I don’t ******************* believe it.” What was so shocking to the blogger of a rival team? The return of Chris Bourque to the most storied franchise in AHL history.

Looking back on it, the signing may go down as one of the biggest in Bears history if you take into account what would happen in the 350 days since the forward put pen to paper.

How he got here:
Bourque signed a two year contract with Washington on June 2nd after a season with the Hartford Wolf Pack. In his ninth season as a professional, he made the 2015 AHL All-Star game, but had a fairly average season compaired to other years in the league. Despite averaging below 0.97 points per game for the first time since his rookie year in with Hershey, there was still a major buzz surrounding the return of arbuably the best scorer in the AHL currently.

The 30-year-old got off to a fast start scoring his 500th AHL point in the first game of the season. Bourque would continue his scoring ways, including having back-to-back 17 point months in January and February. In his 72nd game of the season, a day after being named AHL MVP for the first time in his career, he reached the 80 point plateau for the first time since 2011-12 when he had 93 that season.

This past season has essentially promised Bourque a place in Giant Center rafters and the Hershey Bears Hall of Fame when he decieds to hang his skates up. First all time in playoff points, top ten in all-time Bears points, and countless other records that have not been touched by any player in the past 20 years.

Linemates:
Bourque kicked off the season at right wing, spending most his time with Paul Carey and a rotating center, including Chandler Stephenson and Carter Camper. Then he made the jump to his natural position of left wing at the end of November, joining Stephenson and Riley Barber. A solid January and February with either Scott Gomez or Travis Boyd at center then transitioned to a set of lines with Bourque and Stephenson together with either Boyd, Jakub Vrana, or Garrett Mitchell at right wing to close out the seasons.

Memorable performance: Four point game vs. Wilkes-Barre, April 10th.

Chris Bourque on Chocolate Hockey:

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