Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Burish: ‘I get criticized for being hurt or injured. I read that stuff. I don’t care’

San Jose Sharks v New York Islanders

UNIONDALE, NY - MARCH 14: Adam Burish #37 of the San Jose Sharks waits in an NHL hockey game against the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on March 14, 2014 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/Getty Images)

Paul Bereswill

Following a year in which nothing went right health-wise, Sharks forward Adam Burish has a message for his critics.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

“It’s been two tough years,” he acknowledged. “Last year, two injuries — and the frustrating part for me is I’ve taken good care of myself. I haven’t missed time with a pulled groin or a sore shoulder. I’ve blown my back out fighting the NHL fighting major leader in a game out of training camp, then I break my finger in a million places blocking a shot trying to get home ice advantage down the stretch against a last-place team.

“I get criticized for being hurt or injured. I read that stuff. I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me, but I’m doing it the way I’m paid to play to help this team. Am I going to get hurt blocking a shot some time? So be it. That’s what I need to do and that’s what I need to do to help this team. And that’s what’s frustrating to me.”

Burish signed a lengthy four-year, $7.2 million deal with the Sharks in 2012, but has struggled with various health issues during his time in the Bay Area. His lockout-shortened ’13 campaign ended prematurely after getting hurt in the playoffs against Vancouver, and he missed 67 games last year with the aforementioned back ailment (in a fight with Vancouver’s Tom Sestito) and finger injury -- the latter sidelining him for all of the Sharks’ first-round defeat to Los Angeles.

When healthy, though, Burish can be an effective player. He’s an agitator extraordinaire that’s not afraid to speak his mind -- two days after signing with the Sharks, he took aim at people criticizing Joe Thornton -- and he’s one of the few players on San Jose’s roster to have won a Stanley Cup, something he accomplished with Chicago in 2010.