Burns recalls days with Wild before facing them in Game 3 with Avalanche

DENVER -- Brent Burns considers himself a lucky guy to be playing his 22nd season in the NHL.

“Every day I just come to the rink and I enjoy it,” the Colorado Avalanche defenseman said. “Year round, all these young guys I just have so much fun around with ‘Necy’ (Martin Necas), ‘Jacko’ (Jack Drury), ‘Kells’ (Parker Kelly), ‘O.C.’ (Logan O'Connor), that energy they bring, that youthful laughter and messing around. They would say the same thing, that I probably act younger than I do. Maturity-wise I’m definitely on the smaller scale of 18, maybe 12.

“But that’s a big reason why I still want to torture myself every day at the rink,” he added with a laugh.

More than 20 years ago, Burns was one of the young guys in the locker room, an up-and-coming forward with the Minnesota Wild. Now as he tries to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in his career, he’s playing his former team in the Western Conference Second Round. Colorado is up 2-0 in the best-of-7 series heading into Game 3 at Minnesota on Saturday (9 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN1, SN, TVAS, CBC).

For Burns, Minnesota still holds a soft spot. Obviously there have been quite a few changes around the Wild since the last of his seven seasons with them in 2010-11. There are still some familiar faces remaining, though, and Burns is always happy to see them.

So, would it mean anything more if he goes through Minnesota to reach the ultimate goal of the Cup?

“It doesn’t really matter,” Burns said. “I think it’s always a little weird to go to any of those places (he previously played), but it doesn’t mean more or less. I don’t think it can mean more. It wouldn’t matter if I was anywhere. At this stage, it’s just about getting to the next step. One at a time.”

The 41-year-old has played 1,007 consecutive regular-season games, second in NHL history to former forward Phil Kessel (1,064). He has 945 points (273 goals, 672 assists) in 1,579 career games with the Wild, San Jose Sharks, Carolina Hurricanes and Avalanche, and 81 points (24 goals, 57 assists) in 141 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Burns had 35 points (12 goals, 23 assists) in 82 regular-season games this season and has an assist in six playoff games. He averaged 18:53 of ice time per game in the regular season and is at 18:05 this postseason.

Burns has advanced to the Stanley Cup Final once, with the Sharks in 2015-16, when they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. 

But let’s go back to where it all began for Burns, whom the Wild selected in the first round (No. 20) of the 2003 NHL Draft.

“Just being also another young guy with him there, he was obviously a character guy,” said former defenseman Nick Schultz, Burns’ teammate with Minnesota from 2003-11. “Guys loved being around him. He always comes to the rink in a good mood, he’s such a happy-go-lucky guy and those are the people you want to be around.

“He was such a fun guy to be around and open to anything and everything, trying anything. Anything he did, I feel he was in on it, 100 percent. Everyone’s heard about him being afraid of snakes to having a bunch of snakes. He’s self-taught playing guitar, then all of a sudden he has six guitars. He’s kind of all in on everything. If someone said, ‘You can’t do this,’ he’s like, ‘Yes I can.’ I feel he’s got that mindset a little bit.”

Tom Reid, the Wild’s radio color analyst since 2002, said he noticed Burns’ potential immediately.

“I remember saying to Bob Kurtz my broadcast partner, I said, ‘You know what? This kid is going to be a stud. I mean, this kid is going to be a superstar.’ He was the best player on the ice between the two teams,” Reid said. “Now it was preseason, I get it, so you’re having a lot of unknowns also playing. But he was just all over the ice. He’s big (6-foot-5, 228 pounds), he’s strong and he’s a child in a man’s body, and I say that in a very respectful way because he enjoys everything. I don’t think there’s anything in life he doesn’t enjoy.”

Burns enjoyed playing for legendary former forward and coach Jacques Lemaire from 2003-09. The first feeling Burns had being around Lemaire, however, was a little different than joy.

“At the time, he was pretty scary to me, very intimidating,” Burns said. “Scary to be kind of close to and he had that aura about him that was just special. I can still remember being young and coming up and he would take me out early and do shooting lessons to work on my shot and, his shot was still good and accurate. I was embarrassed. I was like, ‘This guy’s crushing me every day.’ Then with the scratches we would play against him, Mario (Tremblay and Mike Ramsey, Wild assistant coaches). You were trying to survive. Mario was trying to kill you, Jacques was still so good.

“I don’t think I realized how much they cared at the time because I was so scared of them a little bit. The knowledge of the game from him was so evident and he was so involved in it, and as an 18-year-old coming in he spent a lot of time with me. Mario and ‘Rammer,’ too. All those guys were so good for me, even at the time if I didn’t realize it because of the fear a little bit.”

Lemaire, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984, remembers Burns adapted well as a forward to the NHL. At the time, however, the Wild had a shortage of defensemen. Loving Burns’ size and reach, Lemaire put him on the blue line in Burns' first season.

“When I put him on defense, I said, ‘He sees the ice well, he can make a play and he’s going to have more time, not always but he’s going to have more time on defense to do what he’s capable of doing.’ It’s impressive because he grew so much in that area,” Lemaire said. “Even when he was under pressure on defense, he managed it very well. But if you look at him even now at 40-plus years, when he gets the puck, he makes a good play. Ninety percent of the time he makes a good play.

“The thing I really appreciate is a player who comes in and enjoys the game, loves the game, wants to play, is excited to play and he was that type of player. He was that type of person. Just loved to go on the ice, just loved to try to do things more than other guys. He was fun to be around, I can tell you that.”

Brian Rolston, who joined the Wild as a free agent in 2004, said he thought Burns was “special” even back then. Considering some of the teammates the former forward had, especially in his first stint with the New Jersey Devils (1994-99) playing with guys like goaltender Martin Brodeur, forward Scott Stevens and defenseman Scott Niedermayer, he would know.

“You see some of those guys and their habits, the way they play and ‘Burnsy,’ he played forward and Jacques would put him back on defense and he could play oppositions at a very young age,” Rolston said. “You know he’s special right away when he can play defense, especially at a young age. Usually, it takes defensemen a long time to develop and obviously he did develop over his career and got better than what he was at a young age. But to be able to do that in the NHL is not easy. That’s something special right there.”

Josh Harding was always happy to have Burns on defense. The goaltender and Burns go back to 2004, when they were part of Team Canada’s silver medal win at the IIHF World Junior Championship before they were Wild teammates from 2005-10. 

“He was one of my favorite defensemen to play with,” Harding said. “It seems we were on the same page just with goalie to defense, just working together with breakouts and communication. I knew he was my rock back there and just probably the amount of years we were together, just was really comfortable with him being in front and I knew I could trust him fully. He makes things easy for a goaltender, which is what you want. He’s predictable. I knew where he was. Felt like we worked really well together.”

Burns has come a long way since his early days in Minnesota. Now, he’s a veteran on the ice and a happy, exuberant kid at heart at all times. That combination has been a great one for the Avalanche.

“We’ve got some new personalities in there that bring a lot of experience,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said, “but there are certain guys who sort of keep the mojo and juice going around our room and he’s one of them.

“Almost in my entire time here, it’s a fun team to be around but it’s a pretty serious team, too. One of the things we talked about this year was not getting too serious too early. When the puck hits the ice or the prep starts, however long that is before a game, we can get serious but the rest of the time we want to be relaxed and confident, and guys like Burnsy help that, especially when it’s coming from a veteran guy because you know he’s prepared and ready to play and he’s done all the work he needs to do on the previous day, on the game day, and he can still be light and loose and he’s not stressing himself our or anyone else around him out. 

“He’s keeping it relaxed until it’s time to compete, so it’s really important.”