Today’s training inspiration, Alex Burrows, is pertinent because just the other day he scored an overtime goal in the final game of the first round Vancouver Canucks / St. Louis Blues playoff series to give the Canucks their first-ever four-game-sweep in franchise history. After 39 years of existence, it took a shot from a man who barely made the NHL to make the most dominant statement that can be made in an NHL playoff series.

Never even selected in an NHL draft, Burrows’ road the NHL was long and improbable. The NHL has its minor leagues, for example the AHL. However the NHL’s minor leagues have their own minor leagues, and a few short years ago, that was where Alex Burrows found himself: in the ECHL.

It is pretty much the received wisdom that if you ever set foot – one toe – in the ECHL, even for a post-injury conditioning stint, you are never setting foot – one toe – in the big show.

However, with a tireless work ethic game in and game out, Burrows played his way up to the AHL (it sounds funny to say it) and once he got to the minors, he wasn’t going back down to the “minors minors.” He became the best forward on the Manitoba Moose, the feeder team for the Canucks, and when a few injuries to the NHL team required a band-aid from the farm team, it was Burrows that was called upon…and he hasn’t looked back.

In fact, not since the days of former Chicago Blackhawks captain Dirk Graham has a player risen from an extended period in the second-tier minors (Graham played in the feeder league IHL of the 1980s) to a noteworthy career in the bigs.

Previously considered an unlikely candidate to even make the NHL squad at training camp, Burrows has gone on to enjoy a breakout season that has served as an inspiration to every career minor-leaguer toiling away with the Fresno Falcons, Pensacola Ice Pilots or Alaska Aces. Burrows finished 5th on the NHL team in scoring with 51 points (and 2nd with 28 goals), making him a more than legitimate offensive threat. By the end of the season, he had played his way onto the first line with the Sedin Twins. Oh yeah, and he kills every penalty for the team.

Perhaps most impressive is how Burrows has saved his best games for when they are most needed, much in the vein of another hard-working and much-admired Canucks leader, Trevor Linden.

His two-goal performance to give the Canucks a 3-2 overtime win and send the St. Louis Blues to the golf course for the summer was the prime example of a clutch performance during pressure-cooker hockey.

But not only has Burrows overcome the odds by simply making the NHL. In the summer before the season began, he lost his best friend and teammate, 21-year-old Canucks defenseman Luc Bourdon, in a motorcycle accident. With an entire team and city in mourning, none were more heartbroken than Burrows. Early in the season, the team had a pregame ceremony honoring the late and talented Bourdon. During the game that followed, Burrows had another two-goal performance, celebrating his first tally with Bourdon’s own trademarked hockey-stick-as-a-bow-and-arrow move, releasing an invisible arrow into the heavens.

After Alex Burrows scored in overtime to send his team to the second round of the playoffs the other day, he made sure Bourdon got another arrow.

REBUILDING THE MACHINE…

Well, I managed to roll my ankle while filming a few workout highlights for a project that is in the works. It didn’t swell up or anything so…I allowed myself to be talked into an unnecessary late (second) workout with a friend who needed some motivation in the gym. Anyway, the last thing I am going to do is deprive anyone of motivation, so I went to the gym, figuring I would do what I could.

The only problem? The only body part I could do without it being an offensive lack of rest was legs. It was a little soon, but they felt good. So I figured I would do what I could from the knees up and monitor the ankle along the way…

TODAY: LEGS
…5 COUNT UP, 5 COUNT DOWN

SEATED LEG PRESS (5 sets)
350 x 10
420 x 6
420 x 6
460 x 4
500 x 2 / 400 x 2

SEATED HAMSTRING CURLS (5 sets)
90 x 10
120 x 9
120 x 8
135 x 6
150 x 5 / 105 x 5

QUAD EXTENSIONS (5 sets)
105 x 10
135 x 8
135 x 8
150 x 7
180 x 7 / 150 x 2 / 120 x 2

TRAINING NOTES

Did not superset Quad Extensions and Hamstring Curls, as I sometimes do. But I worked in a few pretty good drop sets, considering that I was pretty tired and worn down to begin the workout.

I decided to stop after these three exercises, as I was fading, and save calves for tomorrow. I had kept them from getting involved in the leg press so there was no harm done, really. The ankle I had rolled hadn’t been bothering me during the workout so I didn’t feel like too much of an idiot for targeting legs… But I nonetheless strongly recommend against the rolled-ankle-leg-workout combo.

Total Sets (Legs): 15

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