Patrice Bergeron

Patrice Bergeron
Bergeron in 2014.
Born	July 24, 1985 L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, Canada
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight	195 lb (88 kg; 13 st 13 lb)
Position	Centre
Shoots	Right
NHL team Former teams	Boston Bruins HC Lugano
National team	Canada
NHL Draft	45th overall, 2003 Boston Bruins
Playing career	2003–present

Patrice Bergeron-Cleary^[1] (born July 24, 1985) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain playing for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL).

He played junior hockey with the Acadie–Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for one full season before being selected 45th overall by the Bruins in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He made the immediate jump from junior to the NHL after his draft and joined the Bruins in 2003–04. Internationally, Bergeron competes for Team Canada and has won gold medals at the 2004 World Championships, 2005 World Junior Championships, 2010 Winter Olympics, and 2014 Winter Olympics. Bergeron is a member of the Triple Gold Club after winning the Stanley Cup with Boston on June 15, 2011. Bergeron scored two goals including the Stanley Cup winning goal at 14:37 of the first period of Game 7 at Vancouver. From his superb two-way playing abilities, he has earned three recent wins of the Selke Trophy awarded annually to the NHL forward with the best defensive skills. Bergeron is considered to be one of the premier two-way forwards in the game today.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Playing career

Minor hockey

Bergeron grew up in his hometown of L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, and was mostly an A and AA player throughout his minor hockey days. He was drafted in the 5th round of the 2001 QMJHL Draft out of AAA Bantam hockey with the Sainte-Foy Gouverneurs. The following year, he played A hockey for the Séminaire St-François Blizzard before reporting to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QMJHL.

Boston Bruins

Bergeron was drafted in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins 45th overall. During his rookie season, Bergeron was selected for the NHL YoungStars Game in Minnesota as part of the 2004 All-Star weekend. He finished his rookie season with 39 points in 71 games. Due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Bergeron played for Boston's minor league affiliate, the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League (AHL); he tallied 61 points in 68 games.

As the NHL resumed the following season, Bergeron led the Bruins with a career-high 31 goals and 73 points. He played the majority of the season with linemates Brad Boyes and newcomer Marco Sturm, who had been acquired in a trade that sent captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks in November 2005. The Bruins general manager at the time, Mike O'Connell, recalled in a June 2011 interview that the organization had made a decision to build the team around Bergeron instead of Thornton, preferring the former's on- and off-ice character.^[9] At the end of the year, Bergeron was selected by the Bruins to receive the team's 7th Player Award as the player most deemed to have exceeded expectations. Playing under a defensive system employed by new head coach Dave Lewis,^[10] he recorded his second consecutive 70-point campaign in 2006–07 with 22 goals and 48 assists. He played alongside Marco Sturm and Brad Boyes until Boyes was traded late in the season. He was hampered the majority of the season by a nagging shoulder injury.

After recording three goals and four assists in the first ten games of the 2007–08 season, Bergeron suffered a season-ending head injury during a game on October 27, 2007. Checked from behind by Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Randy Jones, Bergeron hit his head on the end-boards, knocking him unconscious. He lay motionless on the ice for several minutes before being wheeled off on a stretcher and taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken nose and a grade-three concussion. Jones received a two-game suspension from the NHL.^[11] Bergeron made his first public statements regarding the injury on November 8, saying that he would not take any legal action and that Jones had tried to contact him to apologize.^[12]

On January 19, 2008, the Boston Globe reported that he had been sent on a vacation by Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli and that he would likely sit out for the remainder of the season as his recovery had regressed.^[13] In March 2008, he started preliminary on-ice practice with Bruins goaltender Manny Fernandez, who was himself recovering from knee surgery.^[14] He steadily progressed into full-contact practices in early-April, aiming for a playoff return against the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round; he was held back by team doctors.^[15] In June 2008, Bergeron was reported as being symptom-free during off-season training.^[16] He participated in the Bruins' summer development camp (typically for Bruins prospects) with Fernandez,^[17] before joining the Bruins' main training camp.^[18] He returned to action with the Bruins for the team's pre-season opening game on September 22, 2008, against the Montreal Canadiens, an 8–3 victory played in Halifax, Nova Scotia.^[19]

Bergeron skates towards the net during a game against the New Jersey Devils in February 2009.

After the 2008–09 season began, Bergeron scored his first goal since his concussion on October 23, 2008, in a 4–2 home game loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.^[20] Two months later, in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on December 20, 2008, Bergeron collided with opposing defenceman, and future Bruin, Dennis Seidenberg, suffering another concussion. He lay face down on the ice while being attended to by team trainers and eventually left the ice under his own power. He was released from the hospital the day after the collision and placed on injured reserve.^[21] (Seidenberg and Bergeron later became teammates on the Bruins after a trade for Byron Bitz to the Florida Panthers in 2010 to get Seidenberg.) Bergeron returned after being sidelined for a month and completed the season with 39 points in 64 games. In the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs, Bergeron recorded his first career fighting major in an altercation with Montreal's Josh Gorges.

In 2009–10, Bergeron scored 52 points while playing on a line with winger Mark Recchi. During the 2010 playoffs, he scored four goals and added seven assists for 11 points in 14 games. The following season, Bergeron scored his first career NHL hat-trick in a Bruins victory over the Ottawa Senators on January 11, 2011.^[22] Bergeron was named the NHL's First Star of the Month and was twice named First Star of the Week in January 2011.

Bergeron in all black Bruins third jersey in 2011

Bergeron has been in two post-season fights in his entire NHL career, on April 18, 2009, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals. Josh Gorges reached out and hit Bergeron in the jaw, and Bergeron retaliated by pummeling Gorges with two huge left punches. This was a seen as a huge motivator for the series. The second came on June 1, 2013, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He and Evgeni Malkin began squaring off at center ice, leading to Malkin knocking off Bergeron's helmet before they both threw off their gloves to fight. The two continued to throw blows even while referees attempted to separate them.

Bergeron was once again concussed after a hit from Claude Giroux on May 6, 2011, in Game 4 of the second round in the 2011 playoffs. It is believed to be a mild concussion that kept him out of the beginning of the third round of the playoffs. On June 1, 2011, with the Boston Bruins, Alexandre Burrows allegedly bit Bergeron's finger. No penalty was called and the league did not fine or suspend Burrows because the alleged bite was not supported by any evidence except video of Burrows biting Bergeron's glove while his hand was still inside it and bite marks on Bergeron's finger.

Bergeron became the 26th member of the Triple Gold Club on June 15, 2011, with the Bruins when they won the team's sixth Stanley Cup. He scored two goals in Game 7 of the series, including the game (and series) winner. On the Stanley Cup, Bergeron is listed by his birth name, Patrice Bergeron-Cleary. After the close of the 2012 NHL playoffs, even with the Bruins team eliminated in the first round by the Washington Capitals, Bergeron's constant defensive efforts on the ice earned him the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward for the entire 2011–12 NHL season.^[23]

After finishing second in Selke Trophy voting for the shortened 2013 season, Bergeron turned in a heroic playoff performance which included the tying and game winning goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of Round 1, and the overtime winner in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bergeron also became renowned in the hockey world for displaying his toughness when, in the Stanley Cup Finals, he played through a punctured lung, separated shoulder, broken rib and a broken nose.

The Bruins re-signed Bergeron to an eight-year contract extension worth $52 million ($6.5 million per year) on July 12, 2013.^[24] In the following 2013–14 season, Bergeron reached the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career, achieving a total of 30 goals and 32 assists, and was a major factor as the Bruins won the Presidents' Trophy. For his performance in the regular season, Bergeron was awarded his second career Frank J. Selke Trophy, as well as the NHL Foundation Player Award. He was named as the cover athlete for the NHL 15 video game in the same ceremony.

As Bergeron continued play with the Bruins for the 2014-2015 season, on February 23, 2015, Bergeron recorded his 200th career goal as the Boston Bruins defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-2. Patrice Bergeron, who has played his entire NHL career as a member of the Boston Bruins since they drafted him in the second round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, is the 17th player in franchise history to score 200 or more career goals for the club.^[25]

International play

Medal record
Ice hockey
Representing  Canada
Winter Olympics
	2014 Sochi
	2010 Vancouver
World Championships
	2004 Czech Republic
Canada Cup / World Cup
	2016 Toronto
World Junior Championships
	2005 United States
Spengler Cup
	2012 Davos

Following his rookie season in the NHL, Bergeron was selected to play for Team Canada at the 2004 World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. He notched one goal in his international debut and won his first gold medal with Canada.

The following year, Bergeron was chosen to the Canadian national junior team for the 2005 World Junior Championships in North Dakota. He was lent to the team from the Providence Bruins of the AHL, where he was playing due to the NHL lockout. Bergeron was eligible for the World Juniors the previous year, as well, but was not lent to the national team because he was playing in the NHL. He finished the tournament with five goals and eight assists totalling 13 points over six games, while playing on a line with Sidney Crosby and Corey Perry. He scored a goal in Canada's 6–1 gold medal victory over Russia. Bergeron finished the tournament as the leading scorer to earn MVP and All-Star team honours. By helping Canada win gold at the tournament, he became the first player to win a men's gold medal before winning at the junior level.

Bergeron made his second appearance at the World Championships in 2006 and was reunited on a line with World Junior teammate Sidney Crosby, to whom he finished second in tournament scoring with 14 points. Bergeron was once again invited to play for Canada in the 2007 World Championships. He declined, citing that he wanted to recover from injuries suffered during the NHL season.

Bergeron in 2014

On December 30, 2009, Bergeron was selected to play for Team Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He was the only player selected who did not receive an invitation to the selection camp earlier in the summer. Many commentators predicted Bergeron would play on a line with Crosby due to his previous experience with him at the World Juniors and World Championships but he ended up as the 13th forward due to a groin injury obtained in Canada's first game. He played primarily on the penalty kill and in defensive-zone faceoffs.^[26]

During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Bergeron played for HC Lugano and competed for Canada at the 2013 Spengler Cup, along with teammate at the time, Tyler Seguin. Canada took gold in the event, and Bergeron scored the first goal in the first minute of a 7–2 Canada rout over HC Davos, and added three assists.^[27]

Bergeron won his second gold medal with Team Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2000–01	Sainte-Foy Gouveneurs	QMAAA		5	1	2	3	0		—	—	—	—	—
2001–02	Séminaire St-François Blizzard	QMAAA		38	25	37	62	18		—	—	—	—	—
2001–02	Acadie-Bathurst Titan	QMJHL		4	0	1	1	0		—	—	—	—	—
2002–03	Acadie-Bathurst Titan	QMJHL		70	23	50	73	62		11	6	7	15	6
2003–04	Boston Bruins	NHL		71	16	23	39	22		7	1	3	4	0
2004–05	Providence Bruins	AHL		68	21	40	61	59		16	5	7	12	4
2005–06	Boston Bruins	NHL		81	31	42	73	22		—	—	—	—	—
2006–07	Boston Bruins	NHL		77	22	48	70	26		—	—	—	—	—
2007–08	Boston Bruins	NHL		10	3	4	7	2		—	—	—	—	—
2008–09	Boston Bruins	NHL		64	8	31	39	2		11	0	5	5	11
2009–10	Boston Bruins	NHL		73	19	33	52	28		13	4	7	11	2
2010–11	Boston Bruins	NHL		80	22	35	57	26		23	6	14	20	28
2011–12	Boston Bruins	NHL		81	22	42	64	20		7	0	2	2	8
2012–13	HC Lugano	NLA		21	11	18	29	8		—	—	—	—	—
2012–13	Boston Bruins	NHL		42	10	22	32	18		22	9	6	15	13
2013–14	Boston Bruins	NHL		80	30	32	62	43		12	3	6	9	4
2014–15	Boston Bruins	NHL		81	23	32	55	44		—	—	—	—	—
2015–16	Boston Bruins	NHL		80	32	36	68	49		—	—	—	—	—
NHL totals				820	238	380	618	316		95	23	43	66	66

International

Year	Team	Event	Result		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2004	Canada	WC			9	1	0	1	4
2005	Canada	WJC			6	5	8	13	6
2006	Canada	WC	4th		9	6	8	14	2
2010	Canada	Oly			7	0	1	1	2
2012	Canada	SC			4	1	4	5	4
2014	Canada	Oly			6	0	2	2	4
2016	Canada	WCH			6	4	3	7	2
Junior totals					6	5	8	13	6
Senior totals					41	12	18	30	18

Awards and honors

• 2003–04: played in the YoungStars Game (NHL)
• 2004 IIHF World Ice Hockey Championships: World Ice Hockey gold
• 2005 IIHF World U20 Championships: World Ice Hockey gold, MVP, and All-Star Team
• 2010 Winter Olympics: Olympic gold
• 2010–11: won Stanley Cup with Boston Bruins (Bergeron became 25th member of the Triple Gold Club)
• 2011–12: led the league in plus-minus
• 2011–12: won Frank J. Selke Trophy
• 2012 Spengler Cup: won with Team Canada
• 2012–13: won King Clancy Memorial Trophy
• 2014 Winter Olympics: Olympic gold
• 2013–14: won Frank J. Selke Trophy
• 2013–14: won NHL Foundation Player Award
• NHL 15: official cover athlete
• 2015 NHL All-Star
• 2014–15: won Frank J. Selke Trophy
• 2016 NHL All-Star

References

1. Dupont, Kevin Paul (2010-10-01). "Clearing up Bergeron's name". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
2. "Patrice Bergeron Shows He's the Best All-Around Player in the NHL". weei.com. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
3. "Patrice Bergeron Is 'pound for Pound Best Player in the NHL'".
4. "Bergeron, Datsyuk, Toews finalists for Selke Trophy". 2013-05-15.
5. "Boston's Patrice Bergeron wins Selke Trophy". 2012-06-20. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
6. "Bergeron narrow runner-up in Selke, wins Clancy Trophy". 2013-06-15. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
7. "Bruins' Patrice Bergeron favorite for two-way play". 2013-06-20. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
8. The Canadian Press (24 June 2015). "Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron wins 3rd Selke Trophy as NHL's best defensive forward". www.nhl.com. National Hockey League. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
9. "Felger & Mazz: Ex-GM Mike O'Connell "Glad" Bruins Won Before Sharks". CBSBoston.com. 17 June 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
10. "Lewis gets ax from Bruins". The Boston Globe. 2007-06-16. Archived from the original on October 9, 2007. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
11. "Bruins' Bergeron taken off in stretcher". The Sports Network. Canadian Press. 2007-10-27. Archived from the original on October 29, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-27.
12. "Bruins' Bergeron speaks about his concussion symptoms". The Boston Globe. 2007-11-09. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
13. TSN "NHL - Canada's Sports Leader" Check |url= value (help). TSN.
14. "The Official Web Site - Boston Bruins". Bruins.nhl.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
15. Shinzawa, Fluto (2008-04-07). "'Red jersey is over now' - The Boston Globe Bruins Blog". Boston.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
16. "Bergeron aches - to skate - The Boston Globe". Boston.com. 2008-06-22. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
17. "The Official Web Site - Boston Bruins". Bruins.nhl.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
18. "The Official Web Site - Boston Bruins". Bruins.nhl.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
19. "On the Road: Halifax, Nova Scotia". bruins.nhl.com. 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2014-12-12.
20. "The Official Web Site - Boston Bruins". Bruins.nhl.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
21. "Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron (concussion) out of hospital - ESPN". Sports.espn.go.com. 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
22. "Patrice Bergeron has 1st career hat trick as Tim Thomas, Bruins shut out Sens". ESPN. Associated Press. 2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
23. Boston Bruins (June 20, 2012). "Bergeron Wins Selke Trophy". BostonBruins.com. Retrieved June 20, 2012.
24. "Bruins Sign Bergeron to Eight-Year Contract Extension Through 2021-22 Season". bostonbruins.com. Boston Bruins. July 12, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
25. http://thesportsquotient.com/stat/nhl/13918
26. "Hockey remains Canada's game". CBC Sports. 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
27. "Canada defeats HC Davos in Spengler Cup final". CBC Sports. 2012-12-31. Retrieved 2013-07-20.

External links

• Patrice Bergeron's career statistics at EliteProspects.com
  
• Patrice Bergeron's career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database
• Patrice Bergeron's player profile at NHL.com

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