Both Alex Burrows and Jordin Tootoo found their way into the penalty box in the first period of today’s 4-3 Overtime Loss to New Jersey. Tootoo went in first, after being caught holding into Dan Hamhuis a little too intensely. Burrows joined him 96 seconds later, for putting his gloves up in Travis Zajac’s face.

So really, the two were together for only 24 hockey seconds. But in that time, Burrows shouted a few choice words at Tootoo, which the Devils winger suggests crossed into unacceptable territory.

We’re not here to speculate on what Burrows may have said. For one, we don’t know for sure if things were actually said at this point. Secondly, there have been a myriad of unfortunate and troublesome situations in Tootoo’s personal, family, and hockey life over the years; more so than almost any player in the modern era. If Burrows did say something, I highly doubt he said everything, so to list it all off involves us mentioning things that Tootoo would like to move on from.

From Rich Chere:

The quotes from Tootoo seem to explain the scrap between Tootoo and Derek Dorsett in the second period, that took place before the puck could be dropped during a stoppage. Tootoo initially skates towards Burrows before immediately being confronted by the Canucks’ enforcer.

In hindsight, the first sentence in that tweet is a little bit foreshadowing. Now, we wait to see if there was something misheard or miscommunicated, or if Burrows actually said something malicious with intent. Tootoo suggested in his media scrum that he’d like the NHL to look into the matter; we’ll see if that’s the next step.