There are some things you just don't expect to co-exist peacefully in nature.
A mongoose and a cobra.
A lion and a hyena.
A couple of strong-willed hockey executives.
Most of the time, anyway.
Oh, it's ill-advised to referee a wrestling match between a mongoose and cobra, and a lion and hyena aren't likely to share a pork chop (or even a water buffalo carcass) without a few hostilities.
But a couple of front-office guys who know what they want and how they'd like to achieve it?
Yeah, that can work.
At least it seems to be with Ron Hextall and Brian Burke, about 2 1/2 months into their partnership with the Penguins. They've agreed on a whole lot during their time together, including that the next time one of them raises his voice to the other will be the first. If it ever happens at all. Which neither seems to anticipate.
Burke, distilling their relationship to a single word, said it has gone "wonderfully."
It is revealing that he and Hextall identify each other by their nicknames, "Hexy" and "Burkie," on virtually every reference. That's partly a reflection of hockey culture -- practically everyone in the game has their surname modified that way by co-workers -- but also illustrates the genuine bond and mutual affection they have forged during their brief time together here.
"I'm sure that over the years, we're going to have some debates," Hextall said. "Debates are healthy, and I love debates. It's been very healthy so far."
This comity should not be construed as either man lacking the courage of his convictions -- or anything else. Describing them as "strong-willed," Burke said, would "make you a master of the obvious." Which is just one of the many issues on which he and Hextall appear to agree.
"Strong-willed?" Hextall said. "Me and Burkie? Are you kidding? We've had a really good relationship thus far. I don't anticipate that changing."
Hextall was perhaps the game's most ferocious competitor during his goaltending days, and could be a supernova of emotion on the ice, capable of cosmos-altering outbursts. The image of him chasing Penguins winger Rob Brown after Brown scored a goal on him -- the only time in Brown's career that he moved so fast that his shadow could barely keep up -- probably is the most enduring memory most Penguins partisans have of Hextall's playing career.
"I'm a much more cool and collected guy (now) than people envision," Hextall said. "I know my history doesn't necessarily lean to that."
Indeed, fans' perception of him as a player appears to have been an incomplete portrait, even if it was the most public one.
"If you talk to guys who played with Ron Hextall, and I've done this, they say that what he was in the (locker) room was a quiet, confident kid, a guy they could really trust," Burke said. "They knew he'd play well. He didn't boast. He didn't brag. He was quiet. He had a quick temper on the ice, and that's what fans saw and what they'll remember."
Burke's playing career was shorter and less celebrated than Hextall's, and he sometimes seems more inclined to stray from the measured terms in which he generally speaks. Burke can wield his considerable vocabulary like a blunt-force object, expressing himself with volcanic force if he feels the situation calls for it.
Which it hasn't been since he and Hextall were hired by the Penguins, perhaps because he understands the niche each of them fills -- "Hexy is the GM here," Burke said. "My role is to advise him." -- and because there's a receptive audience for the input he offers.
"We both have opinions, but one of the abilities that a (general) manager has to have is to listen to his people," Hextall said. I" feel like I'm a pretty good listener. I do not want to make decisions (based) solely on my own opinion, so I listen to, whether it's (director of player personnel) Chris Pryor or Patrik (Allvin, the assistant GM) or Burkie or any of our scouts.
"I certainly listen to everybody. You have to be really careful in this business about being too strong-willed and not open-minded. In the end, we have to make decisions, but I think (Burke) and I at the start decided that we'd make decisions and we'd always come to a conclusion together. We haven't had any issues at all thus far. I don't really anticipate any."
And perhaps, that's only natural.
