Q: What does Adam Burish have in common with Sam and I?
A: He writes a blog.
Actually, I don't really know, Sam could go starting fights a lot, that could be something those two have in common.
Burish was third in the NHL last year in PIM, just behind Jared Boll of Columbus. Burish and Wiz were the main fighters on the team (don't even bother to mention Koci).
Just because he fights a lot, doesn't mean Burish is any good at it yet though. According to Hockey Fights voters, of the 16 fights he was in last season, Burish had a record of 4-8-4 - I'm actually giving him a victory in a fight that doesn't have enough votes to count yet because he rocked the guy.
Hopefully, Burish will get better at fighting or learn to focus on something else because right now the only thing he excels at right now is get punched in the face. He scored only 8 points in 81 games and was -13 for the season.
That's not to say that Burish is a bad guy to have on your team though. He plays a roll on the Hawks and he does it reasonably well. He's certainly not afraid to drop the gloves and probably wants to get better at it (at least if the first three posts on his blog are any indication).
I think Burish has potential to do better, both at fighting and at scoring. He put up 21 points in a season in the AHL two years agoand averaged around 20 points in college. Anything over 15 points here would be a big welcome addition. With Adams gone now too he'll need to step up at center..
The fight above shows the main reason I like having Burish on the team. This was in early February after the Hawks had just gone a miserable 4-9-1 and needed some sort of spark. Burish helped by getting in 3 fights in 4 games, all within the first 2 and half minutes of the game and the hawks managed to get 4 points in the 3 games he started off with fights.
Ritchie and Burish had fought earlier in the year and Burish was pumped for a second chance. The video cuts it off but you can see Burish smiling and if memory serves, he was yelling the whole way to the box. Not at Ritchie, but just because he was happy to do his job and excited about the fight.
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2 comments:
I actually think his biggest strength is as a shot blocker. In Crawford's Anaheim shutout last season, it seemed like Burish blocked more shots than Crawford did. (full disclosure: I have a mancrush on Burish)
I didn't check those stats before, but looking on NHL.com now, Burish was 5th on the team in blocked shots with 66 compared to Sopel's leading 122. I really like Burish as well, not sure if it's mancrush territory yet though
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