Brian Burke will not be repressed
It hasn’t even been a week since Gary Bettman politely asked Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe to stop hitting each other or he will turn this car around right now. But Burke was contrite in his acceptance of the league’s decision, saying:
“The NHL has stepped in and stopped the fight, and we respect that,” Burke said. “We believe the NHL has a perfect right to do that, and we intend to abide by the league’s directive, which is to stop the criticism. There is no question in our minds, or no defiance. I consider the public debate to be at an end, because that is what the commissioner has ordered.”
What he meant to say was that he doesn’t take orders from anyone, least of all a smarmy commissioner whose wild mid-’90s over-expansion almost killed the entire NHL. While he technically played by the league’s rules, he still went out of his way to make Kevin Lowe’s life just a little bit tougher for old times’ sake.
In last Friday’s interview on an Edmonton sports talk radio station, Lowe expressed great admiration for newly re-signed Duck Corey Perry, saying he’s a “hell of a player” and that if Anaheim doesn’t want to pay him, the Oilers would be “glad to have him.”
Burke’s response was not unexpected.
“It is our understanding that NHL member clubs are not entitled to express interest in the services of a player belonging to another NHL organization. Our understanding is that such an expression of interest constitutes tampering. We have asked the league to investigate whether a tampering episode has taken place. We’ve asked them to make a full investigation into that. We will have no further comment on this, and whatever the league’s decision is, we will abide by that.”
What a prick. I doubt there’s ever been an general manager as awesome as Brian Burke.
