<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2010/01/pest.jpg" border="0" alt="" hspace="4" vspace="1" align="right" />Showing up late for a party is never a good thing and seeing how we're 22 days into 2010 and I have yet to wish you a happy new year, I'll hold off until 2011.

Truth be told, I just woke up from a New Year's Eve hangover that makes what they went through in

look like a pleasing spa package. Things have been rough, cat's tongue rough, but from what I'm hearing it hasn't been half as bad for this sunny side upper as our boy Alex Burrows.

Burrows vs. Auger, Burrows vs. MacLean, Burrows vs. NBC; all the undeserved negative media attention he's received has put pests under a burning fluorescent light. Having them crawl around your house is one thing, yet it's quite another when a pest is sparking your team by getting under the opposition's skin.

My fear when Burrows spun out was that it would force him to alter the way he plays. Luckily, that hasn't come to light – like Tiger Woods' marriage counselor, he's just been trying his best to get things back to the way they were.

Somehow, like a bat out of hell, Burrows has actually soared in the face of adversity and shat on the idea that bad press can affect a player's performance. He's tough as nails and just as stubborn, which is why we love him.

Keep battling, keep scoring and keep telling it like it is. The world, even the one this optimist lives in, could use a few more players like Burrows.

The one surprising thing about the Burr in everyone's side is that he's not from Saskatchewan,

of most scrappy NHLers. Of the 41 current players who claim Rider pride and deserve to be covered in with green slime for admitting as much, Darcy Hordichuk and Tanner Glass both found their way to the Canucks.

<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2010/01/shaq.jpg" border="0" alt="" hspace="4" vspace="1" align="Left" />The impact of having two Corner Gasers in the line-up this season has been a more hostile Burrows. Normally the best super pest – hands down without any Kanye debate – Burrows has been forced to grow a few more legs to keep pace with the rowdy Regina rednecks.

The result of this has been night in and night out meetings between

that has made for appointment viewing. People can't get enough of Burrows right now, but the fact remains that many spectators have him painted with a Sean Averian brush. This makes as much sense as Shaquille O'Neal joining the Lake Eerie Monsters, even if just in bobblehead form.

Burrows is a pest, a termite if you will, and he knows how to play the roll to perfection. If there were an award for that, it would be named after him. He's always played that way and it's how he's risen to NHL super stardom. Should he be vilified for it? I'll answer that question with a question, should LT be allowed to make any more music videos?

Bad example because the answer is clearly YES PLEASE. But leave Burrows alone. Without him and his 13 goals over the last nine games the Canucks might not be plowing their way through the league like Nic Cage is taking over, well, everything.

<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2010/01/cage.jpg" border="0" alt="" hspace="4" vspace="1" align="right" />Burrows plays the game with passion unmatched in Vancouver's locker room and until he's long in the teeth, that won't change. If pessimists want to make issues of that, bring it on.

Like Jay-Z says, on to the next one.

Who is Optimist Prime? He's an eternal Canucks believer whose glass is always half full, even when it's empty.

Throughout the 2009-10 season, Optimist will take a lighthearted look at the Canucks while never losing the faith. It's Cup time baby!

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