{"id":204330,"date":"2025-10-11T01:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204330\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T01:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:39:07","slug":"burns-set-to-reach-1500-nhl-games-when-avalanche-host-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204330\/","title":{"rendered":"Burns set to reach 1,500 NHL games when Avalanche host Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER — Brent Burns<\/a> may be on the verge of his 1,500th NHL game, but in some ways he doesn\u2019t feel as though he\u2019s had so long of a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s probably like raising kids a little bit. They say like every day feels like it’s 10 years, but 10 years goes in the blink of an eye too,\u201d the Colorado Avalanche defenseman said Friday. \u201cI definitely feel like I just started, but also at the same time, it’s been a long grind too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns, whose career has spanned 22 seasons and four teams, is set to become the 23rd player and eighth defenseman in NHL history, as well as the only active player, to reach the milestone when the Avalanche host the Dallas Stars on Saturday (9 p.m. ET; Victory+, KTVD, ALT).<\/p>\n

The other seven defensemen are Zdeno Chara<\/a> (1,680), Chris Chelios<\/a> (1,651), Scott Stevens<\/a> (1,635), Larry Murphy<\/a> (1,615), Ray Bourque<\/a> (1,612), Nicklas Lidstrom<\/a> (1,564) and Ryan Suter<\/a> (1,526).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s incredibly impressive,\u201d Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. \u201cEighth defenseman to ever do it. And if you look at the guys on that list, I remember looking at it, glancing at it, it’s pretty impressive guys. Hall of Famers. It’s impressive to hit 1,000. Every game after that’s a bonus, I’m sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow he’s at 1,500 and it’s hard to do, especially like, they’re not easy minutes that he plays. He’s an older guy now, and to me, the streak he has of games he’s played in a row, it’s part of the reason why he’s hit 1,500. But to be able to play the way he does, as physically as he does, and to be able to stay healthy for as long as he has, it’s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old, who was the oldest player on an NHL opening night roster this season, is also in the midst of the fourth-longest consecutive games played streak in NHL history, and the longest active. He\u2019s skated in 927 straight, a feat that\u2019s a testament to his longevity, last missing a game in November 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s a lot of luck. It’s definitely timing of different things that have happened,\u201d Burns said. \u201cYou hear guys say it all the time, but you’re pretty lucky to have great people that take care of you and get you through the 2 1\/2 hours you\u2019ve got to get through. And a lot of times it’s just been very lucky with different schedule breaks and when different things have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns, who has 910 points (261 goals, 649 assists) in 1,499 games with the Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks, Carolina Hurricanes and Avalanche, and 80 points (24 goals, 56 assists) in 135 Stanley Cup Playoff games, has made a career out of learning from those around him, absorbing as much as he can from teammates and opponents. Two key figures who helped him early on are former Sharks teammates Patrick Marleau<\/a> (1,779 games played) and Joe Thornton<\/a> (1,714).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re both very different guys, but [I] learned a ton from both,\u201d Burns said. \u201c’Patty’ was just so even-keeled and so professional in the way he took care of himself. And ‘Jumbo’ just had an unbelievable mentality. He always used to say, ‘Just play 82. You\u2019ve got to play 82. There’s no nights off.’ His mentality was just unbelievable to see and be a part of and learn from, and definitely, both those guys were huge for me in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER — Brent Burns may be on the verge of his 1,500th NHL game, but in some ways…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-204330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}