RALEIGH, N.C. -- There's conformity among many NHL players. And then there's Brent Burns.
Breaking up the parade of monotone business suits and well-groomed exteriors while entering the arena is a 6-foot-5, 230-pound defenseman wearing loud patterns, lugging a comically enormous camouflage backpack and sporting a chaotic scraggle of beard around a toothless hockey grin.
That's the Brent Burns you see. The Brent Burns you hear about is one of the most unique star athletes in all of professional sports, let alone the NHL.
He's the "big kid" in a 38-year-old body. There's the menagerie of animals he owns.