Brian Burke Quotes

"I will personally challenge anyone who wants to get rid of fighting to a fight."
 ~Brian Burke

"No player is un-tradeable. Wayne Gretzky got traded."

 On the US Men's 2010 Olympic team:

"If you went to Vegas before this tournament, there isn't going to be a penny bet on us."

”Hockey is a man's game. The team with the most real men wins.”

Burke, entering his first off season in charge of the Maple Leafs discussing the future makeup of his team:

"I don't give a rat's ass what they do in Pittsburgh or Detroit. There's been four different Cup winners the last four years, and I got one of them (Anaheim) and it was a fighting team. We're playing it that way regardless."

On Pavel Bure in Vancouver: 

"We're not going to kiss anyone's butt to play here. We have a beautiful arena, our own plane, and, again a great hockey market and one of the best cities in the world, so I'm not kissing anyone's behind to play here, that's just not going to happen. He wants out, I'm going to move him."

On officials in a playoff series against Detroit:

"I want to point out to the officials that Todd Bertuzzi does not play for Detroit, it just looks like that because he's wearing two or three Red Wings sweaters all the time ...

I didn't know that tackling was an acceptable tactic, I didn't see it our in rule book ...

Sedin is not English for punch me, or headlock me in a scrum ...

Our goalie has large pads and a cage, he's clearly distinguishable from the rest of our players, and again he's the one goalie on the ice that doesn't dive when he gets brushed ...

Detroit has 12 captains and assistants to speak to the officials; we find that unusual, most teams have only two or three. It's amazing to me the number of players that are able to protest calls in Detroit uniforms."

On voting for shootouts:

"There is no way, as long as I am in charge of the Vancouver Canucks, there is no way we are going to vote for that. To me, it would be the same thing as if the National Football League decided its games by having guys throw footballs through a tire."

On Alex Auld not making the team:

"There is no way Alex Auld was going to be on this team this year, unless he flew to France during the summer and bathed in the holy waters at Lourdes."

A Nice compilation of the Burke's classic rants:



More Burke Sound Bites: