I think Briere, Murray and Bouillon hurt this team more overall as of late, and when they are playing poorly, Desharnais and Parros are even more useless than when Bourque is, because at least Bourque has a small trace of defensive awareness.
I think all of the names you mentioned apart from Briere are wrong.
Murray has a 1 year deal and provides some toughness and crease clearing ability. He has a physical game at the very least but we'd agree he's far from a core player and likely someone we can do without in the future.
Boullion is overplayed but can be useful. As much as I think Boullion sucks sometimes, he's had far more better games than Bourque has.
Parros is an enforcer, how does he hurt the team if we barely even dress him?
Desharnais, fallacy. I won't bother with this one. GWG, SO wins, general offensive ability is better than what Bourque brings. DD is the scapegoat for everything at times, I don't think he belongs in same criteria as Bourque because DD actually tries and does more.
Briere, well he sucks. Shows signs of being a talented and effective player but was hoping for better.
As for defensive awareness. What good is it if you're not going to battle in the corners. Sure our small guys don't win every battle but they don't skate hard up and down the ice. Bourque's heart isn't into it, it's fairly obvious that he's not pulling the rope like everyone else. Does it mean he's a bad player? Nah, it means that the things that make him a good player aren't being done. Guy was a beast in Calgary. He used his size, his strength for chances. Sure, he was inconsistent but inconsistent beats non-existent every time.
Way I see it is Bourque has half a season and playoffs to prove his worth. He's done very little since being a hab. I have nothing against him personally nor do I think it's a OMG GTFO BORK situation but he can do more and I hope he does because habs will need to make a choice with him this off-season.
. Hopefully Bourque gets bought out in the off season, it's over for him, time to move on.
