Alex Burrows was the only one behind the bench of the Montreal Canadiens still waiting for a contract extension, which he finally received this morning. Marc Bergevin rewarded him for his excellent work with a three-year deal, as did his acolytes Dominique Ducharme and Luke Richardson. The return of Burrows was a no-brainer since he has a great relationship with Ducharme, not to mention being a creative, energetic and passionate man.
Like Ducharme, Burrows arrived behind the bench of the Habs on February 24th, when Claude Julien and Kirk Muller were kindly let go. Burrows' creativity and enthusiasm were welcome additions to a group that certainly needed that type of personality.
Burrows, 40, played 913 NHL games, had 409 points and excelled on special units, both on the power play and short-handed. With the Habs, he takes care of the forwards and manages the power play, which had some early success, but has had several difficulties following this nice "revival".
Nevertheless, in the end, the performance of the powerplay posted an efficiency of 19.8%, then the attack produced 97 goals in 38 games during the regular season, good for an average of 2.55 goals per game. In the playoffs, it dropped off a bit: 18.9% efficiency in PP and averaging 2.32 goals scored per game.
