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- Dec 28, 2009
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Some early morning opining on Burrows seeing as his name is once again a target in the press, courtesy of a disappointing ex-NHL player trying to drum up publicity so he can sell a book.
Whenever one of these incidents come up, the media seem to focus on Butrows as if he is the only person to have ever crossed into personal territory with his trash talk, which is being willfully ignorant of some of the more colourful characters to play the game for the sake of taking a stab at a player you dislike personally (Burrows).
Also frequently lost in all of this nonsense is how when Burrows came into the league, he wasn't far removed from riding the bus around the ECHL. He wasn't some high draft pick or a touted prospect, or even a vaunted free agent signing. He was some older kid who came into a Canucks' Prospect Camp one year and did well enough to earn not a contract with the Canucks, but the Moose. I remember attending the inter squad games that they played at that camp that year - I think Burrows had five goals and ten points in two inter squad games. Even then, he wasn't seen fit for an NHL contract - it took Craig Heisinger giving him a shot, a year of toiling in the ECHL, and injuries giving him an opportunity in the AHL which he seized as first a bottom six grinder, and then as a point a game top six player the following year, before he finally blipped on the big league radar.
He scratched and clawed his way from that day to the NHL...is it any wonder he would do and say anything he had to to stay there? He didn't have the luxury of getting repeated chances and long leashes that drafted prospects (like that disappointing ex-NHL player) got. He subsisted in the league on sheer effort alone and established himself as a bonafide NHL player in his own right before ever playing with the Sedin Twins.
That's a myth some people like to perpetuate about him; like Burrows is some lousy player who never would have sniffed the NHL without Daniel and Henrik. That is once again just being willfully ignorant. Before he ever played with them, he was an extremely effective third line player, a fixture on the PK, and had already developed a penchant for being involved with big goals for the team, something that would end up being a staple of his career. If the Twins could turn absolute nobodies into stars, I must have missed seeing Jason King or Jesse Schultz or Jan Bulis scoring thirty goals in a season. The Sedins can bring out the best in players, but if there isn't a good foundation of a hockey player there at the start, it's not going to work. Burrows has a great hockey IQ and a nose for goal scoring areas, not to mention a willingness to get that nose dirty. That's what made him a successful wingman for the Twins.
I also see the same old pissing and moaning from other teams' media surrounding "how can canucks fans really like Burrows? In light of saying things that cross the line?" I feel like a broken record, but it's willful ignorance again. Every team in the league employs players who cross the line. The ones that make death threats, or racist slurs, or homophobic slurs, or comments about wives and girlfriends, pretty much all of it has been said and done by at least one member of each team in the league, to say nothing of dirty/predatory play in general. Yet somehow when the lens turns on Burrows, it's as if he's the only guy that has ever done it? Yeah, right.
My two cents on why Burrows is so loved here is because perhaps more than anyone, he represents Vancouver as a city and an organization. Fighting, kicking and screaming to prove we belong next to the more storied Canadian franchises with their Stanley Cups and their Hall of Fame heroes. While the Sedins are paragons of virtue and the role models I hold up for my kids, Burrows is the every day fan on HF Boards, constantly defending himself and justifying his place amongst the rest. The guy is twelve games away from 800, which will be just another giant middle finger to disappointing, highly drafted ex-NHL players who played less than half of that. That he got there on effort and will power and a relentless desire to improve himself and give his all for his team - goals, antics, words and all - are why he is adored here. He is the quintessential "rather play with him than against him" player.
So to the people who lambaste Burrows as the only guy to have ever crossed the line, they can stuff it in their hypocritical mouths. And for those mostly the same people who question how we could possibly be a fan of or defend such a player, we are our own judges of character and heart. And Burrows has both in spades from my perspective.
Thank you Mr. C for saying this. Burrows will always be one of my favourite Canucks from this past era.
