Canucks' Burrows on the shelf again with "sprained hand"

Maybe instead of having his last name on the back of his sweater, Vancouver Canucks' winger Alex Burrows should have "Fragile, handle with care."

The veteran winger was injured in a brief dust up with Toronto Maple Leafs' Phil Kessel - suffering a sprained hand according to various reports - after Burrows engaged the NHL's second-leading goal scorer with a slash to the face then some pushing and shoving, and finally some nasty cross checking before his gloves went flying.

Kessel obviously didn't want to fight, but Burrows insisted by instigating the tussle, which lasted all of three seconds and caused the play-by-play announcers to humorously quip that both should have just received two minute roughing calls.  But somewhere in the scrum Burrows got his hand damaged, his third injury this season.

So yes, "Fragile, handle with care" would work nicely blazoned across the back of the sweater...

Either that or stop getting in the way of pucks, and certainly stop trying to pick a fight with Kessel - because neither of those things are good for his health - nor is the pulling of hair, which is aesthetically displeasing to everyone except schoolyard sissies and WWE Divas...


...and somewhere in the NHL rule book there's got to a clause pertaining to the practice, but if there's not Burrows should probably trim down his lettuce to the nubs before the NHL schedule resumes in late February and someone goes all salad bar on him, provided they can get past that Hannibal Lecter-style mask that he wears.

Of course, he wears the face shield for good reason (No, not to keep him from biting Patrice Bergeron, although...), protecting his jaw that was broken in December when he tried to eat a puck while facing the Carolina Hurricanes, and combined with the time he missed after taking a puck off his skate in the season opener which resulted in a broken bone in his foot, Burrows has missed 32 games.

And in the 28 games he has played in, he has taken just 68 shots, or a little over two shots per game while averaging 18:21 minutes of ice time per game.

Something is clearly amiss with Burrows, who used to be one of the better two-way players in the NHL, but inexplicably fell off the face of the hockey planet toward the end of last season's lock-out shortened schedule and this season has but five points - all on assists - to show for his efforts.

And now, he's taking to venting his frustrations by slashing and cross-checking folks in the face - something that not even Vancouver bench boss John Tortorella would understand, and he's a man that knows what it's like to get all riled up...

There has been no time-table announced for Burrows return, just standard, "He can use the break to get healthy" talk, so hopefully that's the plan and Burrows can back on the ice and concentrate on scoring goals and stop with the goon act - something not befitting a man of his talent.

 http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2014/02/canucks-burrows-on-shelf-again-with.html#.Uv5XEYUcq58