The Pittsburgh Penguins named Brian Burke as their president of hockey operations nearly a year ago, as they turned to the experienced executive to help guide the franchise in the right direction. With team pillars like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in their mid-thirties, it is a pivotal time in the club’s history as the next few years could have a massive impact on the future.
Despite it still being early days, Burke has enjoyed his time in Pittsburgh thus far – even if he hasn’t been able to experience the city in full quite yet.
“It’s a great sports town,” Burke said, via triblive.com. “This is one of the best sports towns in the world. So that part has been great. As far as the dining and all of that, I’ve really only been to four restaurants because that’s all we’ve been allowed to go to in between lockdowns. So, I have not experienced the Pittsburgh experience like I hoped to.
“I did go to a Steelers game, which was cool. Got to be friends with (Steelers general manager) Kevin Colbert, who I admire very much. It’s been terrific. What have I learned? I have yet to meet a person here who has treated me unkindly. People here have been terrific. No one honks at me if I’m late at a turn.”
Despite the challenges the team and the league have had navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic, Burke believes both the club and the league have done a good job with how they have handled the entire situation given the uncertainties of it all.
“The league has done an amazing job with all of this stuff. We’ve got big challenges ahead of us as a league. But I think the NHL is ready to meet those challenges. And I’m impressed with the way crisis after crisis has been dealt with effectively and professionally by the NHL. So that’s all good.
“Our coach has a mindset that no matter what happens, we have to be ready to play,” he continued. “Next man up, all that. I think that same mentality applies here. OK, we’re locked down. OK, then we’re not locked down…We’ve all been just like, whatever the rules are, let’s follow them and let’s keep winning. Kind of a matter-of-fact approach.”
The Penguins find themselves in a battle for top spot in the Metropolitan Division after what has been a hectic opening half of the NHL campaign. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are both back and healthy and should cause quite a bit of damage as the season progresses. Despite the success the veterans have had together though, Burke understands it’s important to focus on the team’s young talent. Even after Pittsburgh’s early playoff exit at the hands of the New York Islanders last season, he has utter confidence in his young goalie Tristan Jarry.
“It was critical. To have a goaltender struggle in his first real playoff appearance, that’s not unusual,” Burke noted. “We don’t think Tristan Jarry had a great playoff last year against the Islanders. That’s not unusual. You look at (ex-Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre) Fleury, I think had a couple of tough playoffs. (Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei) Vasilevskiy. (Montreal Canadiens goaltender) Carey Price. So for a player to scuffle a little bit early on, that’s not unusual.
“People are saying, ‘Oh, you’ve got to get a goalie.’ Ron Hextall said to me, as soon as the playoffs were over, ‘We don’t need a goalie.’ And he told Tristan that: ‘We’re not looking for a goalie. We believe in you.’ When your (general manager) tells you that, that means a lot. But when your (general manager) was a pretty phenomenal NHL goaltender, that means even more…It was huge.”
Burke is also happy with how the team drafted during his first season with the club.
“We’re happy with (the 2021) draft. We didn’t have a lot of picks. We’re happy with the players that we took. We’re not going to change our formula…The two things that you have to counterbalance here are being capped out. What do you want to add? And being cognizant of the fact that our talent pool is limited. Trading high picks for an outside chance of winning a round, that math doesn’t make sense anymore.”
It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out in Pittsburgh with Burke helping to run the show, but fans of the club certainly have to be happy that their team seems to be in good hands.
