Burke to whiners: "Shut up!"
VANCOUVER — Brian Burke has got two words for the people who are complaining these are the Glitch Games:
Shut up.
“I think that’s (B.S.),” said Team USA’s general manager. “I’ve been to four Winter Olympics, this is the best one I’ve been to in terms of organization. You’re going to have glitches in an event this size, this many people, logistical things, with multiple venues. You’re going to have glitches.
“I don’t know why people are whining about it. I think it’s been extraordinarily well run. This is my fourth one, it’s not like I’m a novice. I think they’ve done a marvelous job here. I wish people would quit bitching about it.”
The Americans and the Canadians will faceoff at 4:30 p.m. local time Sunday, the first time in the preliminary schedule the Americans will not have to play in the first game of the day at noon.
The schedule hasn’t sat well with Burke, but he has adopted the same policy here as he has with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“I think playing at noon sucks,” he said. “I think it is very hard for NHL players to play at noon. But, we’ve played two games at noon and you haven’t heard a word about our team. Not one player has complained about it and we won’t because our theory is no complaints, no excuses. That’s our team motto in Toronto. A complaint is a prelude to an excuse, and an excuse is a prelude to losing, and so it’s no complaints and no excuses.
“Now that we played the two games, I will say that I don’t like playing at noon. We didn’t complain about it.”
No matter what time Sunday’s game is played, it going to be a sea of Canadian red inside GM Place and it will be interesting to see how the young American team — 16 of its players are 25 years of age or younger — handles the environment.
“We’re the enemy tomorrow. We know that. It’s going to be a hostile crazy crowd on behalf of Canada and that’s the way it ought to be. The games are in Canada, that’s the way it ought to be. It was like that in Salt Lake for the U.S. team, a good U.S. crowd. It ought to be, that’s what hockey is about, passion,” said Burke.
“It’ll be a passionate. It’ll be a zoo in here. Again, that’s an important part of being successful in a tournament like this, is for our team to manage that.”