> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.keeganthecaniac.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Brent Burns Will Break the Iron Man Record. He'll Do It in Colorado. - URL: https://www.keeganthecaniac.com/brent-burns-will-break-the-iron-man-record-hell-do-it-in-colorado/ - Published: 2026-08-18T00:38:01.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-18T00:38:01.000Z - Author: Keegan # Brent Burns has not missed an NHL game since November 21, 2013. Think about what you were doing that month. Whatever it was, he's played every game his team has played since then. Three organizations, twelve and a half years, 1,007 straight and counting. He enters this season 58 games from Phil Kessel's record of 1,064. ## Sign up for Keegan The Caniac Hurricanes takes and stories written for Caniacs, by a Caniac. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Which means that sometime around late January, a 41-year-old defenseman is going to become the most durable player in the history of the sport. And he's going to do it in an Avalanche sweater, three years after he was ours. ## The streak in context The record has changed hands twice in the last five years. Doug Jarvis held it at 964 from 1987 until 2022\. Keith Yandle broke it, ran his to 989, and then got healthy-scratched by Philadelphia, which is a grim way for that particular record to end. Kessel took it seven months later and pushed it to 1,064. Burns passed Yandle in March. On April 4th he became the second player in league history to reach 1,000 consecutive games. Kessel sent a video message for the ceremony congratulating him and telling him to go win a Cup. That's the part. ## He doesn't have one Twenty-two seasons. 1,572 games. A Norris Trophy in 2017, six All-Star selections, gold with Canada at the Worlds, a World Cup. No Stanley Cup. He's been to a Final — San Jose in 2016, lost to Pittsburgh in six. That's the closest he's come, ten years ago. And here's the thing that got me thinking about this in the first place: he spent three seasons in Raleigh. Came over from San Jose in 2022, played 82 games in his age-39 season, and then signed in Colorado last summer. We won it the year after he left. ## Which brings me to an uncomfortable place Colorado is the favorite for 2027 in the betting markets and in The Athletic's fan survey. Twenty-six percent, first on the board, ahead of Florida and ahead of us. As a Canes fan I should hate that. They went 55-16-11 last year, they've got MacKinnon and Makar, they were the best regular season team in hockey, and they're the most likely obstacle between Carolina and a repeat. Except they're in the West. We wouldn't see them until the Final. So the only version of Colorado winning the Cup that hurts me is the version where they beat us in June. Every other version is just a thing that happens on TV while my season's already over. And in that version, Brent Burns gets one. ## Why this guy specifically I don't think I'd feel this way about most players. There's something about the durability that makes it different. Burns hasn't missed a game in twelve and a half years, which means he's played through everything a hockey player plays through — the broken stuff, the torn stuff, the flu, the deaths in the family, the nights where his body told him no and he went anyway. Add the 112 playoff games on top of the streak and the number gets absurd. The official record doesn't count postseason games. He's played those too. That's not a talent. It's not something you can scout or draft for. It's just showing up, over and over, for longer than anyone has ever done it. And the reward for doing that better than any player in NHL history has so far been zero championships. ## The catch He turns 42 in March. The Kessel record is 58 games away, which he'll hit somewhere around late January if he stays in the lineup, and there's no reason to think he won't. But the Cup part isn't guaranteed by any of that. Colorado was the best team in hockey last year and got swept out of the conference final by Vegas. Favorites lose. That's the whole reason they play it. He also could have won one here. He was on the roster for two of those conference final runs and left one summer before it finally happened, which is the kind of timing that doesn't have a lesson attached to it. ## So Colorado's the favorite and I'm not rooting for them. But if Carolina doesn't repeat, and it's the Avalanche, and Brent Burns is standing on the ice at 42 years old with a Stanley Cup in his hands after playing 1,100 straight games to get there? That's fine. I'd be okay with that. He's earned the day off.