Wild's Burns ready; ring the bell

“So, in the past six months, how has your life changed?”

The Wild’s Brent Burns digested the question, smiled for a couple of seconds, digested the question again and … laughed hysterically.

OK, it wasn’t the brightest question considering it was posed in Burns’ library, nicknamed “Little Africa,” a loft atop his spanking new 9,100-square-foot home overlooking the picturesque Lake Elmo Park Reserve. There’s enough forest and wildlife in the distance, that you’d think his magnificent floor-to-ceiling windows actually were a hi-def big screen tuned to Animal Planet.

In other words, Burns’ reply was about the only way he could muster, “Duh! Look around, dude.”

With the ink still wet on a four-year, $14.2 million contract, the 23-year-old has experienced an endless amount of life-changing moments this season, the most obvious being his development into a bona fide stud on the Wild blue line. 

Burns — the shaggy-haired, tattooed, missing-toothed, happy-go-lucky, self-described “goofball” whose love for the sport is evident every energetic shift — is one giant reason there’s such optimism in the Twin Cities as the Wild opens the postseason tonight at home against the Colorado Avalanche.

“I can’t believe how many 'Burns’ jerseys are in the stands now,” said girlfriend, Susan. “I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, there’s a Burns jersey.’ Now I’m just like, 'There’s another one. There’s one on the street.’”

Said a blushing Burns, “I only see Gabby, Roli and Koivu.”

The 6-4, 210-pound  Burns has grown into a dominant, multifaceted defenseman, a big-minute guy who has the skill, size, strength and skating ability to both shut down defensively and create offensively.

Coach Jacques Lemaire said it perfectly earlier this season: “He’s like a kid who’s got new toys. He wants to use them all at once.”
Building off last season’s second-half coming-of-age, Burns set Wild records for defensemen this season by scoring 15 goals, which was second in the Western Conference, and 43 points.

“I can’t pinpoint exactly when it was where I finally mentally matured and became a guy that didn’t wait for someone else to do something,” Burns said. “I remember always waiting for Gabby [Marian Gaborik] to go down and score. Now I want to be one of those guys.

“There’s an inner confidence where now it’s time I can make a difference. Before, there’s two minutes left in the game, I better crawl into my shell. Now, it’s, 'Maybe I can make the difference, maybe I can score the goal, maybe I can help the team out. Maybe I can do something.’”

Burns’ confidence never has been higher, which is why he’s so looking forward to the playoffs, something he experienced for the first time last April during the Wild’s first-round defeat to Anaheim.

He wants to make an impact, and in more than just fighting, like he did for the first time last year with the Ducks’ Chris Kunitz and Corey Perry.

“It’s the same game, but everything’s elevated, and I know what to expect now,” Burns said. “I didn’t expect to go into Anaheim last year and for that place to be an absolute zoo. I mean, that place was crazy. The first shift, you’re shaking the whole time. You get to the bench and you’re still shaking.

“Now I expect that. I expect the emotions to be crazy. I expect after every scrum blood and sweat going everywhere. I can’t wait for it.”

'On his way’ to superstardom

Denis Potvin knows defensemen. The longtime Islanders captain, who won three Norris Trophies, was an offensive/physical hybrid, and from afar, the Hall of Famer has kept his eyes on Burns.

Potvin’s mouth dropped in February when he watched Burns dominate a Wild victory over the Florida Panthers by assisting on one goal and scoring the winner.

“I know he wasn’t drafted to be a superstar defensemen, but he looks like he’s on his way,” said Potvin, the Panthers’ TV color analyst. “This kid does a lot of things well, but the thing I notice most, when he steps in at the blue line and leans into his wrist shot, he’s got Tiger Woods-type clubhead speed.

“This kid’s got one of the best wrist shots I’ve ever seen. Just really good delivery and follow-through. I love his confidence. He’s got a little bit of [Ed] Jovanovski in him — the love of the game and just that raw talent.”

Burns credits the “leeway” Lemaire gives him.

“But if I get caught, I hear about it,” Burns said. “But Jacques’ given me a lot more rope, and with that, I’ve been a lot more careful because I know if I get caught, he’s not going to let me sniff anymore.”

Of course, the reason Lemaire gives Burns the freedom to join the attack is because he has the wheels to recover. At times, Burns looks like a fourth forward, with teammates even calling him “rover.”

“Because of his skating, and I mean he’s an elite skater, he’ll challenge in more,” Wild General Manager Doug Risebrough said. “But if he couldn’t skate as well as he could, he wouldn’t be able to do that. He’s good at recovering. He’s tall and long and his stick looks like it’s 80 feet long, so even if he’s a step behind, he still has the body build to stretch himself out.

“It’s a risk, but with the production, it’s big reward, too.”

In Lemaire’s history, defensemen haven’t gotten a lot of points. In fact, Burns’ single-season goal and point totals are right there with legendary blue-liners Scott Stevens, Chris Chelios, Scott Niedermayer and Larry Robinson.

Risebrough said he believes Lemaire gets a bad rap for handcuffing defensemen. He has seen Vancouver articles where former Wild defenseman Willie Mitchell said Lemaire has a “stop sign” for defensemen.

“There isn’t for Burnsie. There is for Willie,” Risebrough said. “But not everybody on this team, and certainly not Willie Mitchell, is Burns. If we had three like [Burns], they might all have a different perspective of what Jacques wants from the defense.”

New contract, new pressure

There was a time when Burns wasn’t the most confident player. Not coincidentally, he fell into a deep funk around the same time he signed his new deal in November.

He started playing erratically, and admits now he started “to cave under the pressure.”

Asked how he got out of it, Burns quipped, “I stopped looking for bridges to jump off of.”

He credits Risebrough’s introductory blog on www.wild.com. After seeing Burns’ play dip, Risebrough wrote, “Will [Burns] be three times as good if we’re paying him three times as much? Probably not.”

In other words, Burns didn’t need to justify his paycheck every shift.

“When you’re playing [bad] hockey, it’s not that you feel bad for yourself. You feel worse for your teammates and your partner,” Burns said. “You’re hanging your buddy out to dry, you’re screwing him over, and I screwed my partner during a string of bad games.

“It was tough. I’m glad I got over it. It was painful.”

Said Burns, who owns 40 snakes, “Honestly, I think I bought five new snakes. It made me feel better about myself.”
But it was a big learning experience for Burns.

“I’ve always said this game is so mental,” he said. “There’s not a lot of difference between being confident and not. Like Roli [Brian Rolston] knows he’s going to score on over half his slapshots. He proves it every time he goes post and in. It’s incredible, but he just knows.

“It’s mental, and right now, that mental part is really helping me out.”

A perfect pairing

Burns also doesn’t know where he’d be without 38-year-old Keith Carney, a veteran who epitomizes the hockey cliché “character in the dressing room.” Burns immediately was taken under Carney’s wing last season.

“He’s one of the best dudes on the team, just an unbelievable guy in the dressing room,” Burns said. “On the ice, he’s always coming right to me, always [communicating] exactly what to do. He’s so calm and so smart. If we’re pinned in our zone for a minute, I get off the ice and I’m zonked. My heart rate’s at 190.

“Carns, he’s barely breathing.”

Burns often drives to the arena with Carney.

“I can talk to him about anything. You’d never know he’s 38. He’s goofier than me,” Burns said. “We’ll be at a pregame skate. He’ll take a slapshot that wouldn’t get out of a wet paper bag. He’ll be like, 'Oh yeah, this is a good one, I’m keeping this one for tonight, this is my gamer,’ and then he’ll get another stick off the bench and put the other with his game sticks. He’s a funny dude.”

Asked why he hit it off with Burns, Carney said, “Look at the head on his shoulders. You look at the fun he has, how he enjoys the game. Those type of things are contagious. The other thing, you respect how hard he works. You see a guy who wants to get better and puts in the extra time.”

Ready 'to make a run’

Burns said he believes something special’s brewing with the Wild, and he daydreams about what it would be like to win a Stanley Cup.

“I know this means nothing, but put our lineup on a board and put it next to other teams, I think we’re as good as anybody,” Burns said. “I think we can make a run, and a Cup would be incredible. That’d be sick.

“I remember our first game [in October] in Anaheim this year. I was doing my sticks before the game and they were rehearsing the Jumbotron. It’s all dark and they showed how they made their Stanley Cup rings. They showed the gemologists placing the diamonds in the ring. The sucker was gigantic.

“That’d be just crazy. So cool!”