from Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun,

Minutes before zipping off for an Olympic conference call with USA Hockey officials, Brian Burke weighed in on the Canadian goaltending debate with a surprising stance.

“As of this week, I’d start Cam Ward,” said the Flames director of hockey operations, who doubles as the American Olympic team’s director of player personnel.

“He’s out of his mind right now — you can’t beat him,” Burke continued. “Everybody’s worried about Canada’s goalies right now, but I’m not. I think they have three guys who could play. You just have to figure out who’s on at that moment.”

As part of a wide-ranging chat with a quaint group of KidSport Calgary supporters Monday, Burke says that while he saw the Canadians as the pre-tourney favourites to win in Sochi “the team that scares the living hell out of me is Russia.”

“Because it’s their home soil, it’s going to be crazy there, and we hear rumours of huge bonuses for players if they win gold.”

Armed with a strong, colourful opinions on everything Burke raised plenty of eyebrows and prompted several laughs with frank answers to some of the biggest questions in hockey.

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