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Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
Last story about Christmas 2020……..
Among my Christmas traditions is to spend the day with a book, yes, always a sports oriented book, but a book nonetheless.
My family has been terrific through the years of wrapping a sports book gift to allow me to escape for endless hours and this year was no different as I buried myself in ” Burke’s Law “- A Life In Hockey, by Brian Burke.
While the book truly does chronicle Burke’s life in hockey, not surprisingly, the most interesting passages, in my view, had connections to the Owen Sound Platers and Attack.
When Burke landed in Calgary, he noted former Attack defender Mark Giordano was among the best captains he’d been associated with, citing not only Giordano’s on ice ability but also the tireless charity work, Giordano and his wife, Lauren, are involved in.
In 1998, when Burke was General Manager in Vancouver, the expansion draft for the Nashville Predators was approaching.
Burke wanted to protect former Plater star Scott Walker. His coach, Mike Keenan, wanted to keep Peter Zezel instead. The Canucks owners, reportedly asked Burke to acquiesce to Keenan and thus Walker was left exposed and snapped up by Nashville.
As a footnote, Scott Walker, whose banner hangs at the Bayshore, went on to play more than 600 games after leaving Vancouver. Zezel played 41 games for the Canucks before being dealt to Anaheim in a controversial shuffle that Burke makes no mention of in the book.
And finally, still in Vancouver, there was an almost unbelievable segment involving former Plater netminder Kevin Weekes who had been acquired by the Canucks as part of the Pavel Bure deal with Florida.
Weekes appeared in 31 games for Vancouver and one night he was the starter, almost by default, as Garth Snow was injured and Vancouver had called up Alfie Michaud from their farm team in Syracuse
Who’s Alfie Michaud ?…….Exactly…..and the Canucks had NO intention of letting Alfie Michaud see game action that night.
About six minutes into the game, Weekes came to Canucks bench and claimed to have felt a twinge in his knee.
The Canucks trainer, Mike Burnstein, didn’t believe Weekes whatsoever and there was a heated exchange before Weekes was allowed off the ice and Michaud went in goal and suffered a 4-1 defeat.
After the game, Burke was summonsed to a closed area of the Vancouver dressing room where Mark Messier instructed Brian Burke to trade Kevin Weekes, otherwise Messier said he would kill Kevin Weekes.
In short order, Brian Burke dealt Kevin Weekes to the Islanders.
Burke’s Law, a fascinating insight into NHL Hockey at the league and club level.
I’m Fred Wallace
