Today, Alexandre Burrows received a $2,500 fine from the league for punching Zack Stortini while standing on the Canucks bench.

Burrows commented on his fine, and on Colin Campbell:

“I wasn’t too happy about it [fine], and I let him know,” said Burrows. “He said I was on his watch list for a while, and he said there were two incidents from last year and with my reputation, he was watching me. But I told him I’ve been good lately, and I don’t know why I should be on that watch list....”

Now, $2,500 isn't much more than pocket change for any hockey player. Even before his contract extension kicks in, Burrows - barely making league minimum - earns at least twice that much cash per game. The ten minute misconduct he got for the punch was likely much more of a deterrent than the $2,500 fine.

And he's clearly being encouraged to keep up this style of play that has found him so much success of late. "I'm not going to comment about the behaviour of the opposition at that point of the game," says Mike Gillis, "but I'm not going to try and stop our guys from being aggressive players,"

On top of all this, we all know that Campbell has a history of being overt with his punishment when he's actually trying to send a message. We're all too familiar with Todd Bertuzzi's indefinite suspension resulting from Andrei Nikolishin starting a Steve Moore dog pile.

This is not one of those cases where Campbell looks like he wants to send a message. This looks more like Campbell being pressured by other teams to act in some way and consequently appeasing their whiny GMs by slapping Burrows on the wrist with a gesture far more symbolic than punishing.

Campbell has more than enough justification to punish Burrows in a more severe manner, if only for the sum total of his retroactive, unpunished offenses. First, consider the Nashville game earlier this season where Burrows elbowed JP Dumont in the head, resulting in a lengthy injury. Furthermore, consider his widely publicized involvement in the recent Hawks-Canucks brawl where he achieved infamy by pulling on Duncan Keith's hair. Burrows didn't get so much as a two-minute minor, let alone a fine or a suspension for that play, which is what most hockey fans were hoping for. The small scale of the punishment relative to his actions in this game and throughout the season indicates that Colin Campbell has no intention of punishing Burrows thoroughly or discouraging the kind of antics he routinely engages in.

That said, however, Burrows could have thought through his sound bytes with a bit more tact. "But he's a stubborn guy and he's not afraid to let you know what he thinks and I made sure I let him know what I was thinking about," stated Burrows. At this point, considering everything, criticism of the man who commandeers punishment in the league should have been the last thing tumbling out of Burrows' mouth.

I would have to agree with him on one point, though:

"Maybe the next time I get a suspension."