Calgary's René Bourque Suddenly Has a Reputation for Dirty Play

René Bourque is in his sixth year in the NHL and up until the last few weeks, he seemed like such a nice guy. In December, Bourque drove Chicago’s Brett Seabrook headfirst into the boards, leaving Seabrook injured and earning Bourque a 2-game suspension from Brendan Shanahan.

Isolated incident? Perhaps it was just a brief moment where a player with no history of dirty play picked the wrong time to check a guy who was in a bad spot. But Bourque is going to need better answers than “it was an accident” when he hears from Shanahan again today following a blatant elbow to the head of Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom.

There’s no defending that. Bourque clearly went out of his way to try and land that elbow. (Unless his doctor recently told him to keep his arm elevated around center ice.) You can be certain that Brendan Shanahan now has Bourque file at the ready and he’ll continue to be watched closely.