BOSTON – Perfect is not a part of hockey.
The sport is full of bounces and broken plays. Sometimes a triple-overtime game in the Stanley Cup final ends when a shot pinballs in off a shinpad. There are botched line changes and missed penalty calls and the occasional injury in warm-ups.
All of which brings us to Boston Bruins centre Patrice Bergeron, who may just be the closest thing to Mr. Perfect in hockey right now.
“He’s the nicest guy in the world,” teammate Brad Marchand said Tuesday at TD Garden. “He always wants to help you out. He’s just the perfect guy.
“If you have a daughter, he’s the kind of guy you want dating your daughter.”
And if you need a faceoff win with the game on the line, there’s no one else you want taking it.
Bergeron went an amazing 24-for-28 on draws in Game 3 against Chicago – and that only just begins to sum up his contribution to the 2-0 victory that put Boston ahead in the series. He also scored a power-play goal and filled his usual role on the top penalty killing unit, which extended its run of consecutive kills to 27.
It was a remarkable performance, really.
But there wasn’t much fanfare devoted to it by the Bruins. The players instead elected to drape Dennis Seidenberg in the camouflage Army Ranger jacket, which they hand out in recognition of the top performer after each victory.
“We take pride in being a blue-collar team,” explained coach Claude Julien. “We don’t care about calling certain guys superstars on our team. We all want to be on the same level.”
No one embodies that ideal more than Bergeron, who plays just as hard (if not harder) in his own end of the ice as he does in the offensive zone.
That is a rare gift.
While most kids dream of scoring the goal that wins the Stanley Cup, not many think of taking the key faceoff or intercepting a pass during a penalty kill to get the job done. Those acts don’t come with much individual glory but they are essential in helping a team attain it.
Bergeron was recognized with the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward last year and was narrowly edged out by Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews for it this season.
The 27-year-old seems to have taken his game to a new level during this playoff run. Consider that he leads all Boston forwards in ice time, yet has been on the ice for just two goals against dating back to May 21 – when the Bruins were facing the New York Rangers in the second round.
“I take pride in it,” he said. “I take pride in both sides. Don’t get me wrong here, I love to be in the offensive zone. But yeah, it’s about doing the job there and don’t spend too much time and go on the attack.”
If the Bruins go on to win this Stanley Cup, a tough task will face the 11 voters for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
How exactly do you pick apart the engine powering this team and identify the most important part of it? Tuukka Rask is the obvious front-runner, but Zdeno Chara’s impact has also been essential and David Krejci will likely lead the playoffs in scoring.
And then there has been Bergeron contributing in every way imaginable, from scoring the tying and winning goals in the Game 7 comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs, to successfully taking more than 62 per cent of his faceoffs.
“You know exactly what you’re going to get from him every game,” said Julien. “His work ethic and everything that comes with it is second to none. He’s often used as a good example because he deserves it.”
No wonder Marchand and everyone else in the Bruins dressing room seem to speak so glowingly of No. 37 – they wouldn’t have gotten this far without him.
Even though the soft-spoken centre is comfortable being just another player on a team that can move within one win of a championship on Wednesday night, it’s clear that he has much more respect than that from his peers.
The best compliment of them all might have come from Jaromir Jagr.
Amazingly, the 41-year-old has appeared in just shy of 2,000 games as a professional hockey player during the last 25 years and still found something in Bergeron he had never before seen.
“His strength is on defence,” said Jagr. “I never really see anybody that hungry in the defensive zone. I see a lot of guys hungry in the offensive zone, but I think he even likes it more than in the offensive zone.
“He wants to win every battle on the boards, and he’s so responsible back there.”
It’s a near-perfect mix for a near-flawless hockey player.