Sharks healthy, rested heading into second round against Golden Knights

SAN JOSE -- Brent Burns practiced Monday for the San Jose Sharks and the defenseman is expected to be ready for Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Burns practiced for the first time since Sharks completed a sweep of the Anaheim Ducks in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday. He missed the final 10 minutes of Game 3 with an undisclosed injury, and had maintenance days Friday and Sunday. The Sharks were off Thursday and Sunday.

Fourth-line forward Melker Karlsson returned after not practicing Sunday, giving the Sharks their entire team on the ice.
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"He looks good," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said of Burns, who wasn't available to the media. "He'll be fine. ... I think the time off helped everybody, but if we had played yesterday, those guys would have played. Nothing major."
Game 1 is at Vegas on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS). The Golden Knights, who won the Pacific Division, swept the Los Angeles Kings in the first round.
The Sharks, who went 1-2-1 against the Golden Knights during the regular season, are trying to stay sharp and get healthy during the long break between playoff series.
"I think any time you get a little extra rest, especially this time of year, you take it," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. "It's on us to prepare well and stay sharp. You need the rest because where you want to go at the end of the day, any time you get a short series and get a few extra days off, it's important. All season you look for rest. You try to end your series early so you can get a little extra rest. You don't have to play those extra games."
The Sharks played 24 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs two years ago when they reached the Final but lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. San Jose didn't sweep a series that year. They needed five games to defeat the Kings in the first round, seven to defeat the Nashville Predators in the second round and six to defeat the St. Louis Blues in the conference final.

"Every team this time of year has a little bit of something going on," said Sharks center Eric Fehr, who won the Cup with Pittsburgh in 2016. "It's nice to be able to take advantage of it and get your rest, but this is one of those unique times where both teams get a chance to get their rest. It's not as much of an advantage. Usually when you get a sweep you get an advantage on the other team."
Fehr said he's ready for the second-round series to begin.
"You watch all those games on TV," he said. "You just want to be a part of it. There's only so much time you need to prepare, and once that's done, you just want to start playing again. You want to knock the rust off and just get back into it."