Boston Bruins Awards: Patrice Bergeron For The Selke.

Apr 12, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins center

(37) passes in front of Buffalo Sabres center

(28) during the first period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The finalists for the Selke awards were announced yesterday, and Bruins fans should be quite pleased to see a familiar face amongst them. Patrice Bergeron, Bruins center and winner in 2012 once again leads a very talented pack of individuals. This year, he’s up against Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks. This is his third straight year being nominated for the award.

Bergeron has done his part to earn his second Selke. This year he led the NHL in faceoff wins with 1,015. He placed second overall this season in plus-minus with a plus 38 rating (David Krejci was first with +39). He’s in the top twenty with goals and game winning goals. The Bruins alternate captain has just been the player that can do practically anything on the ice, and even his rivals acknowledge him as the best two-way, three-zone player in the league.

The final piece of evidence I would like to submit is from Puck Daddy himself. When he describes who should be the Selke winner, he choses Bergeron. Why? To quote him: “Bergeron’s on another planet.”

Claude Julien has no doubt of the quality of Bergeron. “He makes you proud, because he’s well-deserving of that. He has been for years now. Always up there in the plus-minus, always plays against top players, produces – he’s got 30 goals this year and that’s playing against top lines – so I can’t find a better candidate than him, and certainly deserves the nomination. So from there, we’ll see where he goes, but in our regards, he’s been the best.” That’s pretty high praise from the Bruins bench boss.

Despite being nominated for the third year in a row, Bergeron is still very humble about the nomination. Once again, he places a lot of the credit of his nomination on his fellow Bruins. “It’s definitely a huge honor. I mean, it goes to the help of all of my teammates, definitely,” said Bergeron. “There are no individual awards that don’t go without the help of all your teammates, so that’s all I can really say.”

While Bergeron is conscious of the honor, he’s got bigger fish to fry at the moment. “I have other things on my mind right now, which is the playoffs,” said Bergeron at the end of his conversation with the media. We’ll find out who wins in June, but I’m guessing it’s going to be someone who wears Black and Gold.