19 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Alex Burrows (19e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
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19 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Alex Burrows (19e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
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19. Alex “The Dragon Slayer” Burrows — 822GP | 193G | 191A| 384P 2006-2017
Alexandre Ménard-Burrows was born in Picourt, Quebec on April 11, 1985. Growing up in Quebec, Burrows played minor hockey just outside of Montreal. He eventually worked his way into the QMJHL and played for the Shawinigan Cataractes starting in 2000-01. Already an overager, Burrows managed to score 16-goals and 30-points in his first-season. Around the same time as joining the Cataractes, Burrows started his career in ball-hockey as well. Playing ball-hockey was something that Burrows later attributed to his work ethic and conditioning. Although Burrows was a decent ice-hockey player, he was an unreal ball-hockey player.
Burrows played for the Montreal Red Lites and won the Canadian National Championship from 2001 to 2006. He was a CBHA (Canadian Ball-Hockey Association) All-Star from 2002-04. He won World Championships with Team Canada in 2003 and 2005. In 2005, he was also recognized as the CBHA MVP and the International Player of the Year. Widely recognized as the best Canadian ball-hockey player of all-time, Burrows was inducted into the Canadian Ball-Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.
While Burrows played ball-hockey, he was still focused on making it as a professional ice-hockey player. Burrows went undrafted in 2002 and started his pro career by signing with the Greenville Grrrowl in the ECHL. As a rookie, Burrows scored 32-points in 66-games. Midway through his rookie season, he was moved to the Baton Rouge Kingfish. The following year, Burrows was signed by the Columbia Inferno. Early into the season with the Inferno, Burrows was scouted by Manitoba Moose GM Craig Heisinger and signed to an AHL contract. Burrows played just two AHL games before being sent back to the ECHL for the remainder of the 2003-04 season. Burrows had 73-points and 194 PIMs across 64-games.
In 2004-05, Burrows earned a full-time spot with the Moose. After scoring 9-goals and 26-points in 72-game, Burrows was offered an NHL Contract by the Vancouver Canucks in November of 2005. He had been invited to the Canucks training camp at the start of the season and impressed enough in the AHL to earn his contract. Burrows was on fire in the AHL with 30-point in 33-games and he earned a call-up to the NHL on January 2, 2006.
Burrows scored his first NHL goal against Ed Belfour of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He ha 7-goals and 12-points in 43-games as a rookie. In his first full season with the club, Burrows was still in the bottom-six, mostly playing as a defensive, penalty-killing winger. Trailing only Ryan Kesler, Burrows was 2nd in shorthanded time-on-ice amongst forwards.
In 2007-08, Burrows began to consistently play with Kesler on the team’s third line. Burrows led the team in +/- at +11 through 82-games. While Vancouver missed the postseason, Burrows was recognized as the Most Exciting Player and Unsung Hero as voted on by the fans.
Everything changed for Burrows when Alain Vigneault made a bold move to split-up Kesler and Burrows following the 2009 All-Star break. Vigneault chose to move Burrows up to the first line to play with the Sedin twins. Burrows was the missing link for the Sedin twins and early on earned the nickname “third Sedin” for his ability to anticipate and read off of their ability to cycle. Burrows was rewarded by management for his play on the top line with a 4-year $8-million extension in February, 2009. That year, Burrows was nominated as the team’s representative for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy as Vancouver’s player that best exemplified perseverance, dedication and sportsmanship. He was also recognized as the team’s most exciting player for a second consecutive season. Burrows finished the season with 28-goals and 51-points in 82-games. His 28-goals in the NHL tied Andrew Brunette’s record for the most goals in a season by an alumni player of the ECHL.
In the 2009 playoffs, Burrows clinched the series with an overtime goal against the St. Louis Blues in Game 4 of the first round. Vancouver was then eliminated in the second round by the Blackhawks and Burrows was revealed to have bone chips in his wrist which required him to have off-season surgery.
In 2009-10, Burrows became the first Canuck since Petri Skriko to score back-to-back hat-tricks. That said, his overall season was similar to the previous. He set a career high in goals with 35 and points with 67. Vancouver was once again eliminated by the Blackhawks in the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs. Burrows had a shoulder injury that required surgery in the off-season.
After missing the first 10-games of the 2010-11 season, Burrows returned to Vancouver’s top line and helped Vancouver capture the President’s Trophy. Once again, they matched up against the Blackhawks, but took a commanding 3-0 lead to start the series. After infamously blowing their 3-0 series lead, Vancouver found themselves in overtime of Game 7 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. With 14:42 left in the first overtime, Chris Campoli turned the puck over at the blue line and Burrows gloved it down and raced into the slot where he ripped an absolute clapper past Corey Crawford to officially *slay the dragon* and move past the Blackhawks.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVJ2QvTPPwY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVJ2QvTPPwY)
In the Stanley Cup Final, Burrows received some scrutiny for allegedly biting Patrice Bergeron in Game 1. It was deemed inconclusive after being reviewed by the league so Burrows faced no disciplinary action. In Game 2, Burrows caught headlines for all the right reasons as he scored 11-seconds into the first overtime period to seal Game 2 for the Canucks. It was the second fastest overtime goal scored in Stanley Cup finals history. Burrows finished the postseason with 9-goals and 17-points in 25 playoff games.
I’ve seen some people say Burrows was lucky and would be nothing without the Sedins. I just wanna say that no other Sedin line mate produced like he did and for as many years. Maybe Anson Carter scored 30 but he was gone after 1 year. Pyatt, Klatt, King, Bernier, Granlund, etc had their moments but none of them came close to Alex Burrows. That means something to me. He was a great two way player without the Sedins, but with them he became a great offensive producer too.
God I love his story. Undrafted, playing in Baton Rouge. Persistence and work ethic gets him a call up from the Moose to the Canucks and the rest is history.