Pat Burns… Rest In Peace
- Pat Burns, seen here as coach of the Montreal Canadiens, reacts to a referee’s call. (1989)
A blueprint for living with cancer…
“It’s pretty much like I used to tell my players,” Burns said. “You can’t complain about the circumstances, about the hand you’re dealt. You just get up every day and you deal with it. It’s hard, it’s hard on you and it’s hard on your family, but you can’t change any of that. You get up, you look in the mirror and you say ‘not today, you’re not going to beat me today’. Sometimes you win that day, sometimes the cancer knocks you down and takes its day, but you get up again tomorrow. You keep getting up until the day comes. You don’t cry because it’s over, you’re happy because it happened. That’s the main thing. I’m happy ‘life’ happened.”
Burns helped Price turn things around.
Price said he was really touched by a message Burns had transmitted to him via Canadiens assistant coach Kirk Muller before the season started, one that he did not care to divulge. “No, that will always be here with me,” said Price.
So long Pat, you will be missed.