Burrows dared to dream and made it to the NHL

Above all, now-former Canuck should be remembered for his never-quit attitude

Just one more sleep before the trade deadline and, still, Radim Vrbata hasn’t moved. While we wait, here’s something else you might not care about, the musings and meditations on the world of sports:

If you go to the East Coast Hockey League website, you’ll find a list of 617 players who graduated from the depths of the hockey world to the NHL.

There’s a ton of goalies. There’s a bunch of tough guys, including some, like Chris Neil, who morphed into decent players. There are grinders. There’s a couple of good blue-liners. Then there’s Alex Burrows. Yes, there have been others who crawled out of the Coast and built careers as point-producing forwards. Andrew Brunette and Michael Ryder are the most prominent. But those two were down for just a cup of coffee.

Burrows spent two full seasons in the ECHL before he got his big break with the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose. A year-and-a-half later, he was in the NHL with the Canucks. And 21/2 seasons later, he scored 28 goals playing on the team’s first line.

Think about this. Think about all the dreamers and no-hopers who slug it out in the ECHL. Now think about the odds stacked against those players. One in 100 might get a look from scouts. One in 500 might get a shot at the NHL. And one in a million turns out to be Burrows.

At his peak with the Canucks, he averaged 26 goals a season over a five-year stretch, but he was about so much more than numbers. He burned for the game. He was willing to do anything and everything to make a difference. That didn’t make him the most likable character and there were times it was difficult to defend Burrows, but he was our Rudy and if the rest of the hockey world didn’t see the things we saw in Burrows, we didn’t care.

That might explain the reaction to Monday’s trade that sent Burrows to Ottawa for prospect Jonathan Dahlen. From a hockey point of view, it was a good deal for the Canucks. But it also gave the faithful a chance to savour Burrows’ career here; to appreciate the player he became and those shimmering moments he provided.

In time, he will go up in the Canucks’ Ring of Honour and will be remembered in this town. But this is Burrows’ greatest triumph. We tell our kids if they want something badly enough and they’re willing to work hard enough for it, they can do anything. We have a hard time believing that a lot of times, but then along comes someone like Burrows and he makes us believe it’s possible, that you can believe in the power of the dream. That is a precious thing. There are still a couple of shoes to drop before Wednesday’s trade deadline, but it’s interesting to note that the three Canadian teams in the Atlantic Division all made moves to add depth.

Ottawa, of course, landed Burrows, Toronto won the (ahem) Brian Boyle sweepstakes and Montreal upgraded its blue-line by adding Jordie Benn. All three teams also occupy playoff spots.

Not sure if this is a universal lesson, but it seems the teams that make their moves before the deadline make out the best.

Had occasion to ask a couple of scouts about Olli Juolevi while working on an Elmer Benning feature last week and here’s the consensus: Juolevi, the Canucks fifth-overall pick from last summer, still projects as an elite prospect, but in the words of one bird-dog, “He’s spinning his wheels this season.”

Juolevi wouldn’t be the first high draft choice who had trouble finding motivation after his draft year. It’s only a problem if he has a problem finding the on switch next year. As it is, he still has 39 points in 49 games in London, Ont., and, here’s a surprise, the Knights are again a power in the Ontario Hockey League. The story of Juolevi’s season is far from over.

Things you learn while driving aimlessly on a Sunday afternoon. J.P. Crawford, a blue-chip shortstop prospect with the Philadelphia Phillies, is the son of former Lions defensive back Larry Crawford.

And finally, it might not have been exciting as the flapdoodle over the Academy Awards, but last week marked the 40th anniversary of the release of the greatest movie ever made. And we’re not talking about Eraserhead.

We speak — it goes without saying — of Slap Shot.

Everyone has their own favourite moment from the movie. “Who howns the Chiefs.” “Trade me right f-bombing now.” The immortal Hanrahan.

Mine is the scene in which Reg Dunlop, the colourful playercoach of the Charlestown Chiefs, tries to bail out the Hanson brothers, who’ve just been arrested for their part in a brawl. Dunlop: You can’t keep them here. They’re folk heroes. Cop: They’re criminals. Dunlop: Well, most criminals started out as folk heroes. Fun Slap Shot fact: Ned Dowd, whose sister Nancy wrote the script for the picture, played for the Johnstown Jets, the real-life inspiration for the Chiefs. Dowd plays Ogie Ogilthorpe in the movie.