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.