His facial hair? Defiantly unruly. His fake teeth? Missing in action. His role on this Sharks team? Perpetually changing, beginning when he arrived from the Minnesota Wild in 2011 as a gunslinging offensive defenseman, transformed into an assertive power forward and then became a blueliner once again.
That is until this season, when Peter DeBoer and his new coaching staff, in particular the sagacious Bob Boughner, dutifully helped the mercurial Burns to his latest identity: a bona fide Norris Trophy candidate.
“I think Burnzie has to be up for the Norris,” Joe Thornton said. “This guy, nobody wants to play against this guy.