There was never much doubt that Alex Burrows would have a career in hockey if he wanted one, following the end of his playing career.
Well known as a student of the game during the course of his 913-game NHL career with the Vancouver Canucks and Ottawa Senators, few players thought the game as well as Burrows.
It was, however, a surprise that he ended up back in the NHL so soon, after retiring as a player three years ago.
Hired as an assistant coach with the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate in Laval in 2018, it took less than three years for Burrows to earn an NHL promotion. When Dominique Ducharme was hired as Claude Julien’s replacement on February 24, Burrows was elevated into an assistant coaching role with the Habs.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen this quick,” Burrows told reporters today, from Vancouver. “I was really shocked. I didn’t expect the call, but at the same time I was really excited, really thrilled to get a chance to get back in the NHL with my childhood team, and to chase that Lord Stanley again.”
Burrows didn’t exactly ease into his new role either.
There’s not many places like Montreal in terms of media scrutiny, as evidenced by the fact that Burrows — an assistant coach — spoke to reporters for a whopping 49 minutes today in English and French.
Since Alex Burrows has been running MTL’s power play, the Canadiens have scored five goals on 11 power-play opportunities. That’s the best efficiency in the NHL since Feb. 24. However, all the goals have been scored on their second unit… We’ll speak with Burrows today.
Burrows was given a rather large responsibility, being immediately put in charge of the team’s power play. So far so good, as the Canadiens have the best power play percentage in the league since the former ball hockey star took over.
What Burrows learned with the Canucks
Burrows famously didn’t play a lot on the power play as a player with the Canucks, with Alain Vigneault usually only giving him second-unit time, even when he was a 30-goal scorer playing on the first line with the Sedins. Even when he wasn’t a part of either power play unit, Burrows said he always made sure to sit in on the power play meetings — a surefire sign that he would make a good coach some day.
“What else was I going to do?” Burrows explained. “I might as well try to learn more, see what our power play was going to try to do, and if I was the next man up I wanted to make sure that I knew what my route was going to be, what my role was going to be, what I should be looking for.
“So that’s why I would go in there, sit in these meetings, and I just liked it, that’s pretty much it.
“Instead of eating bagels in the lounge, I would rather be in there making sure that if my name was called upon to be the next guy up, I was going to be ready for it.”
On what he picked up from his longtime linemates Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Burrows said they were “experts at simple plays.”
“It wasn’t always that crazy between the leg saucer pass, back door, and the tic tac toes. The way they had success was by keeping it simple, over and over and over, and becoming experts at that. It comes down to execution, it comes down with knowing where teammates are going to be on the ice.”
Players chirping him
Still just 39 years old, Burrows is closer in age to many of the players than he is to members of the Canadiens coaching staff. He’s just four years older than Corey Perry and Shea Weber for instance, two players he battled with many times during his career.
That makes him a bit more like a friend that players can talk to, rather than a father figure, Burrows says. It might also make him more vulnerable to chirps.
“The boys, they reminded me in morning skate that my name was up there and they were giving me their chirps — ‘How did you get up there?’ — I heard it all yesterday from the players. They were joking with it, it was fine with me.”
Burrows is no stranger to dishing out chirps, of course, so those players better be ready to take it too.
Still chasing that dream
On his approach to coaching, Burrows had a simple but inspiring answer: be yourself.
“Everybody says the same thing, try to be yourself. Don’t try to be someone else. Be yourself and that’s what brought you here. That’s how I made my career, I never really changed, I always tried to be a hard worker,” said Burrows.
“Every day in the NHL is always a great day. And now that I’m here, I won’t start changing the way I am. I’m going to be myself and that’s what brought me here, that’s what gave me the career I had, so why change now?”
Burrows’ rags to riches story is well known, working his way up from the ECHL, to the AHL, then to the NHL as a checker and agitator. He was never supposed to be more than a third or fourth line grinder, but he ended up carving a pretty nice career as a goal-scorer. But through it all, he had the same dream as every other hockey player, to win the Stanley Cup, and his dream as a coach is no different.
“I’ve pretty much seen it all, played at all. Obviously there’s only one thing missing. If I can do it as a coach, I’ll be extremely happy.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
