DENVER — Brent Burns follows a strict routine that puts sleep at the top of the list. The defenseman heads for the nearest exit as soon as morning skate ends, aiming to eat and rest before the next game in a career that has reached 1,724 regular-season and playoff contests. “I think with Burnsy, he just sleeps a lot — more than anybody,” Colorado Avalanche alternate captain Nathan MacKinnon said with a smile. “He’s like a big bear. He’ll nap between 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and then go to sleep for another 10 hours.”
That regimen, along with relentless training, hunting game on his ranch and a backpack he carries everywhere off the ice, has helped Burns extend a 22-year career that projects toward the Hockey Hall of Fame. At 41, he is pursuing his first Stanley Cup, a goal he says is for himself, for the Avalanche and for former San Jose Sharks teammates who never won the title.
“I think it’s no secret how close we were and how great that group was,” Burns said while walking to meet an Uber driver. He cited longtime Sharks core members including Logan Couture, Patrick Marleau, Paul Martin, Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. That group — which included the 2016 team that reached the Stanley Cup Final — never captured the Cup, and Burns is the last active member of that veteran core.
Burns spent his first seven NHL seasons with the Minnesota Wild, followed by 11 years in San Jose. After three seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes, he signed a one-year contract last offseason with Colorado as the Avalanche chased a second championship since 2022. Over his career Burns has been a five-time All-Star Game participant, a two-time NHL first-team All-Star and won the Norris Trophy in 2017 as the league’s top defenseman.
Former teammates say they are watching and pulling for him. “We’re all watching,” Marleau said. To reach the Stanley Cup Final, Colorado must win the Western Conference. The Avalanche will try to even the series in Game 2 Friday against the Vegas Golden Knights (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), where Burns will face familiar opponent Tomas Hertl. “When he was in Carolina, I was cheering for him because he’s been so close,” Hertl said. “But when it’s a series like this, you don’t even think about it. You just think about your team because that’s what matters because I want it myself.”
