Bourdon owned bike a few days

PITTSBURGH – Vancouver Canucks rookie defenseman Luc Bourdon owned a motorcycle only several days before dying when the bike veered into the path of a truck on a winding, two-lane road, close friend Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins said Friday.

Letang, badly shaken by the news, said a “pretty excited” Bourdon called him earlier this week to tell him about buying the motorcycle.

“We knew it was dangerous, but he had fun with it,” Letang said. “I knew he didn’t, like, speed with it, he just had, like, a bad move or something. Those things, you know, you have, like, no second chance.”

Investigators said Friday the 21-year-old Bourdon’s inexperience on a motorcycle may have played a role in his death Thursday. Bourdon received his motorcycle license only two weeks before.

“The impact took place in the opposite lane,” police inspector Roch Fortin said during a news conference at the Shippagan, New Brunswick, town hall, where flags were at half-staff. “The truck driver tried everything in his power to avoid the accident.”

Letang, who may have been Bourdon’s closest friend in hockey, said Bourdon was a big fan of anything that was fast and moved, including sports cars and watercraft.

“We were talking about his motorcycle, and I never thought it would happen,” Letang said. “I can’t still believe it, because when you lose somebody close like that, you can’t do much. It’s so tough to me. Like, right now, he was my best friend.”

A moment of silence in honor of Bourdon will be observed prior to Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals between the Detroit Red Wings and Penguins tonight.

The ceremony, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement, “will honor a young life ended long before its promise could be fulfilled.”

Police said weather might have been a factor in Bourdon’s crash. Fortin said the wind was gusting strongly at the time on the road between Shippagan and Lameque. He said Bourdon’s bike crossed the center line and collided head-on with the truck.