Bergeron/By S. Bradley
BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron had one last chance to convince Selke Trophy voters he should take home that hardware this season.
And in a completely meaningless game at TD Garden, the Bruins center produced two fantastic defensive plays that led directly to Boston goals in addition to several others and dished off for three assists in a 4-3 shootout win against Buffalo. Bergeron also scored the lone goal of the post-overtime skills competition.
Bergeron came up short in the league faceoff races, as his 5-for-10 showing against the Sabres put him at 59.3 percent, one tenth of a point behind Chicago’s Jonathan Toews. But he won the plus/minus race at a plus-36 and continued to impress his head coach.
“Well, to me, that was a perfect example of what we’ve been talking about Patrice. And I keep saying this guy shows up every day with a purpose, and if it’s practice, he’ll be the best practice player. If it’s a game, he wants to be the best player in the game, and today was no exception,” said head coach Claude Julien. “It would have been easy for him to throw in the towel like a lot of people do, and just say, ‘I’m just going to go out there and just be OK. I don’t want to get hurt. I want to make sure I’m fresh for the playoffs.’ But he went out there again today, led by example, wanted to be the best player out there, and that’s what you get out of him every day. Not just every game, but every day, and that’s why he’s such a great leader and a great example for any young player that comes into our dressing room because we’ve got a few of those players that are like that, and he’s certainly one of the top ones.”
•Ottawa lost in regulation against New Jersey, Washington beat the New York Rangers and Florida prevailed against Carolina today. So that left the Capitals as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and the Bruins’ first-round opponent. The complete schedule for the series will be released Sunday by the NHL.
The Bruins dropped three of their four meetings with the Caps this season.
•With two goals, Tyler Seguin finished on top of the Bruins’ charts in that department with 29 and in points with 67. He’s the youngest Bruins scoring leader in team history. Brad Marchand finished second in goals with 28. Bergeron led the team with 42 assists.
•Julien offered the following update on Adam McQuaid’s status. The blueliner left Thursday’s game in Ottawa because he wasn’t feeling right in his first game back after a head injury from the loss the Washington a week earlier.
“I think his situation — he’s got to feel good. He’s just a little off right now, and as long as he’s a little off, we’re not moving forward with him,” said Julien. “So he might be OK for Thursday, which I anticipate when it’s going to start, but if he’s not, we’ve got some other guys. I think the reason we’ve got that depth was for that reason, that we need players to be able to step in whenever needed. So Johnny [Boychuk]’s looking good right now, and McQuaid right now is day to day, and that could change from one day to the other.”
yeah, I was saying they were giving it to guys that were too offensive. I’d give the Selke to a 15 point guy if he was clearly the best defensive forward in the game.
Serge Savard has 2 cups as GM, and 8 as a player. He might not be tearing up the Q but his record is pretty much untouchable. Chiarelli will be a legend in Boston for the rest of his life for bringing in one Stanley cup (at least I should say).
He’s not taking the reigns as the GM anyway. He’s just there as a stabilizing presence while things get sorted out. People simply knew Gauthier had to go. There’s no clue as to who should take his place though.
We have a high pick this year (1-4) which will likely be the easiest. The scouting reports will pretty much decide which player goes where. The real skill comes into play after around the 6th pick.
As for JPT, he just needs to know people don’t have to agree around here and be respectful about it. I’ll never really like Chara and I may have cursed him a couple times last spring but in the end, we’re all hockey fans.
RD
Its good to see you blogging again. Your assessment of the Selke award is somewhat correct, but I thought there was also a defensive component to it as well.
I see your Habs have hired Serge Savard to oversee hockey operations with the Montreal franchise. I don’t know if anyone checked, but his record in the QMJHL hasn’t been so good.
To All Bloggers
I think its time to invite JPT back to join the chat. I know his comments about Chara were stupid, and he should have had Matt remove them. But I’d like to remind him of the past efforts of the Habs, their smallish forwards, P.K. Subban, and the past draft record. Given the efforts of the Habs this past year, he suffered enough!
The selke trophy has shifted focus over the years. It used to kind of go to the unsung hero type of player that puts up modest stats but is clearly the most difficult player to play against with the best defensive skill.
These days, it has less to do with the original intent of the trophy and it seems to go to the most offensive player with defensive responsibilities. Bergeron is a throwback to before the days when they started giving the selke to Yzerman and Federov.
Bergeron IS perhaps the best faceoff man in the game right now. He is an astounding +36 and everyone remembers his performance in last year’s playoffs in addition to his play this year. Datsyuk might be the top guy in the league in this regard but you can’t give him the trophy every year. I think Bergeron has more than earned the title.
Mike
The Caps goaltending is sub-par, and we’ve had more jump lately than in a long time. Zanon is going to play over Corvo, and hopefully McQuaid and Boychuk are good to go. We have to remember we won last year through goaltending and defense. Some of the players who played important parts last year, are better players this year. I’d like to see Horton back, but we have enough forward depth to take up the slack. If all our d-man are healthy, I think we win it in five.
Likely a tougher matchup than Ottawa, for sure. But I don’t think that the Capitals really owned the Bs. After all, it was a shootout goal away from a 2-2 season series, and that goal came in absolute desperation for the Caps.
Could be trouble, but if the Bruins make it through the 1st round, I think they’ll be the better for it.
This is what I have feared. We have to play Washington. They’ve owned us all year and know what it takes to beat us, and are extremely fast and physical. Gonna be a really tough series.
Great season again boys!! A few humps and bumps but we got through it. Playoff wise I think we are in great shape as I have said before we have such a balanced four lines. Patrice is the do all man and should collect his hardware for sure. Know lets rev up the juices and put a hurting on the caps.
Patrice is just so dang impressive. I hope he remains Black and Gold for many more seasons.