Brian Burke: 'I Don't Give a Rat's Ass What They Do in Pittsburgh or Detroit'

It's not uncommon for sports teams, at any level, to model other successful teams in an effort to become successful themselves. Hey, if it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for us, right? Sure. Just don't expect Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke to follow another team's example unless it involves fighting and blood! OK, maybe not blood, but definitely fighting.

After the Penguins and Red Wings met in the Stanley Cup final for the second consecutive season (and not doing much fighting along the way) Burke, entering his first offseason in charge of the Maple Leafs, was quite candid when discussing the future makeup of his team.

It's going to fight.

"I don't give a rat's ass what they do in Pittsburgh or Detroit," Burke said to the assembled media on Tuesday. "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."

Fair enough. When the Ducks won the Stanley Cup during the 2006-07 season, they had a league-high 71 fighting majors, an incredible 24 more than the No. 2 team (Phoenix) in the rankings. Over the past three seasons, the Ducks have held the top spot twice -- and were second the other season -- as they've been involved in 222 regular season fights.

By comparison, the Penguins and Red Wings have combined for just 162 fighting majors, while the Wings have been involved in the fewest fights each of the past three seasons.

Burke's biggest issue with the current Leafs roster -- the roster he inherited, for the most part -- is that it was, in his words, "a passive group," and that "all year long, when a trainer was on the ice – it was always our trainer– that really bothered me."

Going back to the start of the 2006-07 season, the Leafs have had 102 fighting majors, while 52 of them came this season, a nearly 100 percent increase from what they registered a year ago. Burke wasted little time in adding some grit and sandpaper to the Leafs roster when his first move as general manager back in January was to acquire veteran forward Brad May from Anaheim.

Either way, the great thing about Burke is how up front and brutally honest he is. You always know exactly what he's thinking, and talking about how he doesn't give a rat's ass about what they're doing in Pittsburgh or Detroit is one of the better Burke quotes I've heard. Some of my other favorites over the years:

On Pavel Bure from his days 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, one of the most epic postseason rants in the history of postseason press conferences: "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 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."

On trading Pavel Bure: "I am pleased to announce that Pavel Bure has been traded to the Florida Panthers."

Don't ever change, Brian Burke. Don't ever change.