Tyler Bouck mixed a little business with pleasure on his trip to Prince George last weekend.
When the former Prince George Cougars captain walked out for the ceremonial face-off in Friday's home-opener at CN Centre, it was the first time he'd stepped on that ice since he left the WHL for the Dallas Stars in his 20-year-old season.
"It was great coming back, I had a lot of memories come flooding back. when I drove in," said Bouck. "I just remember how much fun it was. When the fans started stomping their feet and it was getting louder you'd be waiting down underneath in the tunnel. When you're 16 or 17 years old and you weren't used to it, it was just rocking in here. It was just a great team we had a good group of guys."
Bouck, a left winger, played for the Cougars from 1995-2000, a time when it was tough to get a ticket for a regular season game and lineups for playoff tickets stretched around the block at the building formerly known as the Multiplex. He played seven games for the Cougars as a 15-year-old his first season; was around for 12 games before he suffered a shoulder injury in 2006-07, the year Stan Butler coached the team to the conference finals; and was a regular for the next three seasons.
At almost every Cougars weekend home game, Bouck's father Howard, who died in 2013, would make the 10-hour drive from his home in Camrose, Alta., and would stay with Tyler's billets, Judy and Larry Taylor.
Bouck was captain of the Cats for his last two seasons before moving on the pro ranks. He played for Canada in two world junior championships, winning silver in 1999 and bronze in 2000. In 1999-2000, He finished third in team scoring with 30 goals and 63 points and helped the Cougars to a 43-20-4-5 regular season finish, setting Prince George team records for points with 95 while leading the West in goals-for (279) and fewest goals allowed (228). But the best was yet to come in the playoffs. Over a 13-game span, Bouck scored six goals and added 13 assists for 19 points. The Cougars beat Kelowna in the first round four games to one, swept Seattle 3-0 in Round 2 and lost to Spokane 4-1 in the conference final.
As a 17-year-old, in 1997-98, Bouck and the Cougars played the Kamloops Blazers a staggering 22 times, including five preseason, 14 regular season and a memorable seven-game playoff series.
"We were down 3-1 and Game 5 was in our barn, and it was crazy," recalls Bouck. "[Eric] Brewer and [Paul] Brown fought, I fought Steve Gainey, [Richard] Peacock ends up running [Blazers goalie Randy] Petruk and they ran [Cougars goalie] Scott Myers. We won that game then went down to Kamloops and we win in overtime and then we come back home and win on another big Blair Betts goal. That whole series was crazy. You play a team 22 times, you just hate that other group."
Bouck was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 1998, picked in the second round, 57th overall. He went on to play 91 NHL games with Dallas, Phoenix and Vancouver and retired from pro hockey last year after five seasons in the German Elite League with the Ingolstadt Panthers.
"It was awesome, I just wish it could have translated into more of a career instead of cups of coffee here and there," he said. "In the end, I was playing a game I loved and I got to play for 14 years, earning a living out of it.
"The NHL was the epitome,and you see how good those guys are. The guys who make careers, like Hammy [Dan Hamhuis] and [Eric] Brewer, you realize how good they are to compete at that level and be stars at that level. It's such a treat for the people of Prince George that they own the team because they're great guys who know the game and know what it takes."
Now 34, Bouck lives with his wife and three young sons in Kelowna, where he works in sales for Shaw Communications. His boss is Glen Dufresene, the play-by-play voice of the Cougars from 1994 -2003, now national sales manager for Shaw.
Last weekend the Rockets smoked the Cougars in a pair of lopsided wins, outscoring the home team a combined 15-4 in the two games. Bouck gets to see the Rockets play on a regular basis. Coming off a 57-win season with 18 returning players, they're off to 3-0 start and are considered the team to beat in the WHL.
"The Rockets are a benchmark," Bouck said. "That was a program that wasn't going very well for a while there, too, and they made some changes and it just took off and it's been pretty consistent for them.
"It would have been nice [for the Cougars] to get a win but it was great to see the building full. Hopefully the fans will be patient, because it's not going to happen overnight. I think there's a plan in place and it's going to take time, but the results will be there."
Bouck plans to get involved in the Cougars' alumni association and hopes to return to the city next summer for the alumni golf tournament, which this year raised $62,190 for the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation.
"I have to come up there for work anyway but it makes me excited to come back and be a part of things now," said Bouck.
