Hands down, Chicago Blackhawks forward Adam Burish is the best soundbite in the city. In a world of “we’re just working hard,” “focusing on ourselves right now,” and “just need to play our game,” his golden quotes glitter even more brightly. So when I saw his table at Stanley Cup Final Media Day, I made sure to spend a good chunk of the day there, recording the observations and insights of this former Wisconsin Badger.
By Paul M. Banks
To hear Burish talk about hockey groupies go here and here
Patrick Sharp said how much he couldn’t believe that it was a media day, and yet a couple minutes ago no one was talking to Burish (well that didn’t last long)
“And now you guys are talking to me, so now he’s probably jealous. He’s probably waving his hands over there trying to get some attention, because when people talk to me, he gets jealous…I know when someone wants to ask a stupid question, they’ll probably come to me and get a stupid answer out of me, we’ll get there as we go on, I’m sure.”
On Patrick Kane’s mullet…
“That’s embarrassing, he and I went to the barber shop together and he said, I’m going to get a mullet, and I said are you kidding me? He asked me to do it and I said not a chance. So every round as we keep winning he keeps getting it cut and he thinks it looks really cool, I think it’s embarrassing. We’re done talking about Patrick Kane’s hair.”
later Burish added:
“I’m sure whenever the camera is on him he {Kane} turns his head so he can get his mullet in the picture.”
On goalie Antti Niemi….
“He’s goofy, and I think he’s the perfect goalie personality to play in the Stanley Cup because he’s unflappable. I try to mess around with as many guys as I can. In practice I’ll score a couple goals on him and I’ll say, you got some 4th-liner scoring goals on you, but he doesn’t care, I can’t get to thim. He’s a perfect guy for us to have in this situation, because it doesn’t matter what Philly’s going to throw at him, it doesn’t matter what you guys in the media throw at him, he’s going to be the same guy and stay quiet.
He doesn’t say much, I don’t know if he even speaks English because I haven’t had more than a two sentence conversation with the guy. He’s a quiet, confident guy.”
On Hawks television play-by-play guy Pat Foley leading the Seventh Inning stretch at Wrigley Field….
“He was awesome, I texted him right after, saying his singing was actually pretty good and he responded, it’s not too hard to lead a bunch of drunk people at a baseball game, I’m pretty good at that. He was good, I give him a lot of credit.”