BOSTON—Brian Burke tells one barn-burner of a story.

The Leafs GM opened up in an interview with The Score about how his late son, Brendan, helped him mend his relationship with former Oilers GM Kevin Lowe.

Burke went so far as to say he was ready to rent a barn to fight Lowe but commissioner Gary Bettman stepped in to stop it.

The story goes back to Burke’s days as GM of the Anaheim Ducks when Lowe gave an offer sheet to restricted free agent Dustin Penner. Burke didn’t match and the Ducks lost Penner. Burke was furious at Lowe. The two had a war of words in which Burke said Lowe challenged him to a fight in a radio interview.

“That’s not really how you challenge a guy to a fight,” Burke told The Score. “If you want to challenge a guy to a fight, you pick a place and time. So I called (Rangers GM) Glen Sather and said: ‘This guy went on radio to challenge me to a fight.’ I said, ‘I’m going to be in Lake Placid at the U.S. junior camp.’ I gave him three dates. I told him I would rent a barn.

“Dead serious. It got to the point Gary Bettman called me and said, ‘I heard you guys are thinking about having a fight, and if you do I’m going to suspend you both indefinitely. That’s how crazy it got between me and Kevin.”

Burke said his son, Brendan, urged Burke to mend his relationship with Lowe. After Brendan died in a car crash in 2010, Burke did just that, making Brendan’s anti-bullying message his own.

“We have patched it up which is what Brendan wanted,” said Burke.

Lowe told the Edmonton Sun he didn’t know anything about Burke’s plans to rent a barn in Lake Placid.

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