Alex Burrows fesses up to spearing Marc Staal’s groin, vows never to do it again

The new Alex Burrows that’s been less caustic in his actions than ever before in his career is still rough but working on his nice side. During the Canucks 1-0 loss to the Rangers Thursday night, he was locked in a battle in front of the net with defenseman Marc Staal. Burrows used his stick to pull a wrestling heel-like move and spear Staal in the crotch. Thankfully, Staal was wearing his athletic supporter and was able to pop back up and then get busted for tripping Burrows in retaliation.

No penalty was called on Burrows for the incident and no league action was taken against Burrows for it. Rangers coach John Tortorella wasn’t exactly happy with the non-call after the game.

“It’s ridiculous,” Tortorella said. “It’s dangerous. The thing that bothers me is how don’t you see it? And that’s what was told to me, that they didn’t see it. That’s a dangerous play on Marc Staal. It’s beyond me how two guys don’t see it. If I’m Marc Staal, I try to retaliate too. I try to break his ankles.”

When Burrows was asked about the play his take on it was shockingly honest and mild mannered.

Burrows wasn’t taking the bait Friday. He chose to fess up, rather than give a retort to Torts.

“I heard about it, but that’s OK,” said Burrows, who has just 20 penalty minutes this season. “I thought we had good battles all night in front of the net and those things are going to happen. For sure, I’m aware of that [spear], but sometimes in the middle of a battle, you might do things you regret. But those are things I don’t do on a regular basis.

“Obviously, I did it and hopefully it won’t happen again.”

Who is the person that’s taken over Alex Burrows and where is the real one? We ask this because the old Alex Burrows, at least the one we’ve grown accustomed to seeing the last few years, would play the role of the prototypical villain in that he’d commit a heinous act and then get indignant when questioned about it.

While that’s good and refreshing to see Burrows to be so cool and even-headed about everything, it doesn’t reduce how rotten and rather unmanly his tactic for disposing of Staal was. It’s baffling that the league didn’t even make a call to Burrows about the move, but perhaps they already had their calendars filled with dealing with Shane O’Brien and Mike Brown who were each suspended yesterday.

At the very least, Burrows has to be thanking his lucky stars that John Tortorella isn’t a player anymore. I wouldn’t want to cross Tortorella when he’s angry. Ever.