Bure night: Trevor, the wife and Ron frickin' MacLean

Well that's that. From Jim Hughson at the podium to Pat Quinn seated at centre ice to the spirited fans chanting his name, the pre-game ceremony at Rogers Arena last night was a proper blast from the past and a success in enshrining Pavel Bure's superlative time as a Canuck.

Pavel Bure joining Smyl, Linden and Naslund in the
highest-possible honour to be bestowed on a Vancouver Canuck.
Photo by Sheriff Earp on Flickr.

Pavel Bure and the progression of the Canucks point-scoring record

Recall Henrik Sedin's Art Ross-winning season three years ago. It was in that legendary final game against the Flames that Henrik eclipsed Alexander Ovechkin for the NHL's point-scoring crown. And in the process of securing the first Art Ross Trophy in team history, Henrik set another franchise mark. With his 111th point, he surpassed Pavel Bure for the highest-scoring season by a Canuck in team history.

Established in 1992-93, Bure's 110-point record, at the time, had stood for 17 years. In just his second season in the NHL, the Russian Rocket went all Soviet on goaltenders throughout the league and nearly doubled his output from the previous season. On the strength of 60 goals and 50 assists, he made a mockery of the previous team record of 91 points, set by Patrik Sundstrom in 1983-84.

Pavel Bure, Alex Ovechkin and other All-Star voting fallacies

Counting down to Bure night, this is the third in a 10-day series of posts that I now regret promising chronicling the Russian Rocket's career.

With Bure night exactly a week away, the Canucks are returning home from their road trip where they'll await Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Monday. Ovie's pure skill and goal-scoring ability have drawn him comparisons to Bure ever since he broke into the league.

This past off-season, Ovechkin made headlines when he was dubiously voted to both the First and Second NHL All-Star Teams. Thanks to a collective balloting error from the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), he was named to the First Team as a right wing and the Second as a left. As you can imagine, it was the first such All-Star deuce in NHL history (I feel like somewhere Roberto Luongo's ears just perked) and effectively cheated Taylor Hall out of a Second Team spot.

So what does this have to do with Pavel Bure? Well, the Writers Association does in fact have a history for this sort of thing. Only the reverse happened to Bure following his rookie campaign in 1991-92.

Bure, the victim of voting error, and Ovechkin, the beneficiary.

Pavel Bure's Top 10 Goals as a Canuck (honourable mentions)

Today's post is the second in a 10-day series chronicling Pavel Bure's career in anticipation of his jersey retirement on November 2.

As mentioned in yesterday's countdown featuring Pavel Bure's top ten goals as a Canuck, it is nearly impossible to isolate any number of the Russian Rocket's goals as 'the best'. Ten is just far too little.

So with that in mind, here are a few more of Bure's endless highlight reel efforts -- infused with the usual slapdash of trivia and facts -- that didn't quite make the cut:

First NHL goal vs. Los Angeles (November 12, 1991)

Pavel Bure's Top 10 Goals as a Vancouver Canuck

Today's article is the first of a 10-day series chronicling Pavel Bure's career in anticipation of his jersey retirement on November 2.

Consider it "Bure-mania", re-lived. Ten days from now, Bure's iconic number will be raised to the rafters, ending more than a decade of divisiveness regarding the Russian Rocket's place in Canucks history. YouTube montages, engage!

There is no shortage of online videos by which fans can re-experience the brilliance that was Bure's career in Vancouver. Nonetheless, BTD would be remiss if we didn't contribute something to the collection (you could literally spend hours watching quality highlight reels dedicated entirely to Bure), as endless and as saturated as it may be.

Of the videos currently out there, TSN's Top 10 Bure goals, uploaded by several different users, has hundreds of thousands of views. And as much as I love TSN's nightly countdowns, a revised edition of Bure's best goals is sorely in order.