Vancouver Canucks forward Alexander Burrows has a certain reputation on the ice. He's a gritty guy that's tough to play against and is often known to get under the oppositions skin. However, Burrows usually plies his aggravating wares using his stick and his skates, and not necessarily his mouth. On Sunday, during a game between Burrows' Canucks and the New Jersey Devils, the agitating winger reportedly had a few choice comments for Devils forward Jordin Tootoo.
Tootoo, likely fairly thick-skinned at this point, after years of playing in the NHL and dealing with personal tragedies such as his brother Terrence's suicide and his own battles with alcoholism, took serious offense.
"Burrows, when we were in the penalty box, he said some personal remarks regarding my family and it's just unacceptable," Tootoo told NorthJersey.com's Tom Gulitti. "The penalty box guys even rolled their eyes like, 'Is this guy really saying this (expletive)?' I don't have any respect for him. I don't need an apology for him or nothing. It's just classless. We're all professionals and everyone fights a fight no one knows about and when you dive into personal issues, it's just classless. To me, that's cowardly."
Tootoo wouldn't go into specifics regarding what Burrows said, though he did tell NJ.com's Rich Chere that he believes the league, "shouldn't tolerate stuff like that." As Jared Clinton of The Hockey News notes, there has been no indication of forthcoming discipline for Burrows in relation to whatever venom he spewed at Tootoo.
As for Tootoo, he waited until the second period and attempted to talk Burrows into dropping the gloves with him. Burrows decline and Derek Dorsett stepped in instead.
"If you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk," Tootoo said, per Chere. "To make the remarks he did about my personal life and family is classless and unacceptable in this day and age. That's why I went after him."
