Alain Vigneault is concerned the officiating fraternity may target the Canucks in future games.

BY WEB STAFF
sportsnet.ca

Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault is concerned the frenzy surrounding Alex Burrows' comments concerning the officiating of Stephane Auger may lead to more unfair bias down the road.

"It's a concern," Vigneault told sportsnet.ca on Tuesday. "I can understand the situation, but that being said right now I think it's best for our players and myself to let Mike Gillis and management take care of this with the league. It's something they will have to deal with."

Burrows' comments on Auger came in the wake of Monday night's loss to Nashville, a game in which the Canucks' scorer tallied 16 penalty minutes.

Burrows said Auger told him during the warm-up that he made him look bad when Burrows drew a major penalty after Predator Jerred Smithson charged him in Nashville on Dec. 8.

"It was personal. It started in warm up before the anthem," Burrows said. "The ref came over to me and said I made him look bad in Nashville on the Smithson hit."

Canucks captain Roberto Luongo chalked the frenzy up to raw emotion:

"Bur's an emotional guy just like I am. You know he thought what happened last night was unfair, but at the same time that's done now. Done and over with and we have to move and what's more important here is that we focus on tomorrow night and not this effect us once we step on the ice."

Burrows spoke to sportsnet.ca at the airport on Tuesday, but had little to offer on the events of the previous night.

"My focus is on (Wednesday) night's game," Burrows said. "They are playing well and they are a good team and the won on Monday night so just make sure we get two points."