Whether or not Burrows deserved to be suspended for his biting incident was up for debate — though in Boston, the feelings were nearly unanimous — but he was a dominant figure during the Canucks' 3-2 overtime victory Saturday night in Vancouver. Burrows had two goals and an assist, and his game-winner gave Vancouver a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.
"He came up big in key moments," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "I thought he was one of our better players, and we need him to play that way."
When the Sedin twins slack — a common occurrence in these playoffs — Burrows has been the guy who has propelled Vancouver's top line. That was the case again Saturday, when he paced the Sedin line for two periods before Henrik and Daniel Sedin joined the action in the third.
Burrows gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead on the power play when he scrapped for the puck at the left circle and sent a squirmer toward Tim Thomas. The tough-angle shot managed to, ah hem, burrow through Thomas' padding and trickle across the line. In the third, with the Bruins leading 2-1, Burrows found a loose puck in the low slot and fed it to the left circle for Daniel Sedin, who lined it past a sprawling Thomas at 9:37.
And in overtime, Burrows slammed his skate on the Bruins' metaphorical throat. He took the puck into the Boston zone, raced through Zdeno Chara and circled past Thomas and around the net before wrapping it home at the 11-second mark, which gave the Canucks the second-fastest overtime victory in Stanley Cup Final history.
There was almost no doubt that Burrows was the Canucks' best player in Game 2, save for a few sterling moments from goalie Roberto Luongo, so the forward's heroics have to be gut-wrenching for the Bruins.
No matter what the players and coaches say, the biting incident hasn't become a distant memory, either. During a third-period scrum in front of Thomas' net, former Canadien and classic agitator Maxim Lapierre stuck his glove in the area of Bergeron's mouth, and Lapierre had a grin that could have lit up the arena.
The Canucks are flaunting it, and Burrows validated his importance to the lineup with a world-class performance. He might have been even more important because Ryan Kesler was hampered after a first-period hit, so the Canucks' Conn Smythe candidate couldn't pace the second line. Without Burrows, it's hard to fathom where Vancouver's offense would have come from, at least until the Sedins improved in the third period.
Bruins coach Claude Julien wouldn't hear anything of the controversy, though.
"If we start using that as an excuse, we're a lame team," Julien said.
The Bruins can't use it as a crutch. What's done is done, and they can't get it back. They'll try to chip away at the series Monday in Boston, but it has already started to slip away, because Burrows immersed himself as a Vancouver hero — as well as Boston's newest villain.
