NHL: When Big Mouths Should Stay Shut

Great, you're probably thinking. Another article about Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe.

Trust me, I'm as sick of it as you are. But some bigwigs in the NHL don't know when to shut their yaps.

It seems that Brian Burke has an unbelievable amount of both constant whining and complaining and verbal diarrhea mixed into the same bag. The last time I've heard this much whining about anything was when I was on the playground in Grade Five and Bobby pushed Jimmy off the swing.

Brian Burke has a right to be angry at players' rising salaries, especially for the younger, talented stars. But he has no right to blame one person specifically. If he wants to point the finger of blame, why not point to Gary Bettman or to Bob Goodenow or any of the bigwigs in the NHLPA?

Why not blame players' agents who have demanded more and more money from teams for the services of their players? Why not blame more GMs than Kevin Lowe, in particular, who agree to some outrageous contracts?

Lowe called Burke a "media junkie" and rightfully so. Burke is so media hungry in a place where hockey is not a major attractor as some other markets, yet Lowe is not in the right to fire back. Especially based on the fact that even in a weak hockey market, Anaheim fans are very loyal and attendance is pretty decent.

Though Bettman may have tried to settle this schoolyard fight, he did it a little too late and was, too a lesser extent, very pitiful in his attempt. When something like this feud happens, it creates attention across the league and can give hockey exposure.

Perhaps bad exposure, but exposure nonetheless.

And once Burke fired back at Lowe once again, the feud kept going. This is when the bigwigs should just keep their big traps shut.

When I go to the sports page on the Internet or read the morning sports paper, I do not want to see this feud again...ever. It's time that someone swallowed their pride, sucked it up, and become a man.

Whether or not Brian Burke ever learns how to keep his mouth shut will be difficult to predict.

It may never happen.