Life as a San Jose Shark – By Brent Burns

Blog — By burnzy on September 2, 2011 1:03 PM

Gongshow will be featuring from time to time guest NHL Blog posts from current and former players to give you a first hand account of the NHL Lifestyle. Our first blog entry comes from San Jose Sharks star Brent Burns, as he discusses life adjusting to a new team and city after being traded from Minnesota this off season. GSH

Life as a San Jose Shark – by Brent Burns

Whats up Gongers!?

It’s definitely been a crazy summer for my family and I so far -we had a new baby boy born in our house, and then five days later got the phone call from former General Manager Chuck Fletcher letting me know that I had been traded from the Minnesota Wild to the San Jose Sharks.

From there it was pretty crazy; we took a five day trip out west to check out the city a little bit, and of course meet everyone with the Sharks organization. After we were here we knew we were going to love the city – the weather is just unreal, food is great and it’s a huge hockey town. There is so many good spots to eat here I am going to have to make sure i don’t’ eat my self outta the league!

We decided when we got back to Minny that we would head down to SJ and move in early – August 4th was the day we left – so that I could get training with the Sharks, get on the ice for some skates with the guys and get used to our new home. Training here is absolutely unreal, – we have one of the best guys around in Mike Potenza, he really listens to everyone and has a vast amount of knowledge to share with us. He is able take all that he knows and puts it altogether in a bagger of a workout for the boys! He focuses on a lot of sport specific training for hockey with groins, hips and glutes being a big thing. To keep things fun, he also mixes in a lot of other things that make like a little bit of yoga, surfing (will crush any human it’s so hard), biking (road and mountain) and last but not least Ju Jitsu!

In terms of the lifestyle away from the rink everyday out here is just awesome – I leave the house around 7:30 Am, and every day the weather is just a dream – a little humidity from the ocean and some clouds, but most of the time by 9AM It’s all clear and just blue skies with the temperatures floating around 75/80F – just a beauty. Being the only professional sports team close by has a lot of cool perks for us Shark players and let’s us do some pretty cool things – I have had the chance to do a couple really good charity events, golfing at some unreal courses and seeing some cool spots around town that I never knew were here! One highlight since I have been here in San Jose, was going to the famous bicycle manufacturing center for “Specialized” and checking out the factory there which just blew me away! It was unreal seeing how they build amazing bikes and test them out until they achieve perfection. I was in the market for a new bike for a while and I am definitely going to light up some mountains on the new Specialized Venge next off season here in SJ!

So, there is another couple weeks for training before camp starts and of course it’s nice to meet the rest of the boys on the team as they get into town – I can say my experience in this city has been awesome so far.

Now it’s time to buckle down on workouts, skates and focus on a good diet to get that body fat down before testing in training camp – no more tasty Mexican food until after! Best of luck boys and thanks to the boys at Gongshow for letting me be a guest blogger this season on here, stay tuned for posts down the line!

P.S. We will be raising money for www.defendingtheblueline.org, (my charity of choice I support ) through a clothing hat and t-shirt made by the boys from Gongshow – look for these “Burnsey’s Battalion” pieces for sale on their website real soon http://www.gongshowgear.com

Burnzie