Welcome Matt: Langley's Kyle Burroughs is silver lining for Canucks right now
John Tortorella has given us many great lines over the years, but one seems to apply to Canucks defenceman Kyle Burroughs these days.
Burroughs, from Langley, BC, is starring while the Canucks are struggling. He might be Vancouver’s standout player through three games.
As Torts might say, that’s “good for him but not good for us.”
#canucks Tortorella: “I thought our best forward was David Booth, which is good for him but not good for us.”
— Bob Duff (@asktheduffer) February 4, 2014
Fair enough, given that Burroughs is a journeyman defenceman who has had very few expectations on him since joining the Canucks last summer. He’s not supposed to be a talking point for fans after games, and if he is that’s usually a bad thing for him and the team.
Kyle Burroughs played 24:07 tonight.
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) October 18, 2022
But to his credit, Burroughs has taken advantage of the opportunities created by injuries to Tyler Myers, Tucker Poolman, and Travis Dermott on the right-side of defence. For the second straight year, Burroughs broke camp with the NHL club and has played in the first handful of regular-season games.
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It’s been his two games since the opener that have made him the silver lining to this 0-3 start.
He scored a goal Saturday in Philly, then played 24 minutes in Washington Monday night, leading the defence corps with four shots on goal and four hits.
This despite being hit in the face by the swinging stick of Evgeny Kuznetsov, who was suspended for his actions. Burroughs was also victim of a late hit by Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse in the season opener. So he’s taking abuse and he’s fighting through.
The Canucks, as a whole, could take a lesson.