Fiery Burke content in background
Veteran NHL GM accepts role as president of hockey operations
“I don’t expect to be the spokesman for this team. I intend to have a background role”
CALGARY — Fear not. The raging typhoon hasn’t dissipated into a tepid trickle. Rest assured.
Just because Brian Burke says he has at long last chosen life behind the curtain doesn’t mean he is any less the great and powerful Oz, pulling all the levers, sending up the stage smoke.
“If I was worried about my image,” wise-cracked the Calgary Flames’ new president of hockey operations, “I would’ve done a much better job about it before I got here.”
Old habits dying hard, he peered out on the sea of gathered media like a veteran fighter sizing up 50 or so new, overmatched sparring partners.
“I mean,” he went on, “I’m not going to change. If you ask me a question, I’m going to answer it. If you ask me if I like this tie, I’m gonna tell you I don’t like it.”
—Brian Burke
News of Burke’s hiring promised to spice up what is sure to be a long, lean, repetitive winter of on-the-job training for a lot of young players. From an organizational standpoint, a welltimed explosion or two could actually be a pressure-lifting distraction.
Burke’s truculence, his withering defence of those in his employ, those snappy one-liners, are the stuff of legend. This is a man, after all, who once quipped: “There is no way Alex Auld was going to be on this team this year, unless he flew to France during the summer and bathed in the holy waters at Lourdes.”
So it came as a bit of a shock Thursday that someone so renowned for stepping in would actually be open to the idea of stepping back. But will he? CAN he? Really?
You don’t hire Brian Burke to be contrite, silent, obscured by shadow.
“I know people think I need to be driving the bus all the time,” protested Burke. “Well, I’m actually a pretty good teammate, too.
“So no, I don’t intend to be front and centre. Actually, it’ll be a nice break after being front and centre, getting in a lot of little scraps with the media.
“This job allows a guy of my seniority to do less of the grunt work, the day-to-day stuff, but still be involved. I had to get my head around that. I don’t expect to be the spokesman for this team. I intend to have a background role. I think people will believe that when they see it, but trust me, they’ll see it.”