Boston Bruins: Patrice Bergeron moves up franchise playoff points board
Boston Bruins alternate captain and all-around ‘good guy’ Patrice Bergeron just added another reason why he should get first ballot admission to the Hockey Hall of Fame and his jersey sent to the TD Garden rafters.
With his assist on Brandon Carlo‘s shorthanded goal during Monday night’s Game 4 loss to the St. Louis Blues, Patrice Bergeron has now officially passed Boston Bruins legend Phil Esposito as the 2nd-highest Bruins playoff scorer in franchise history.
Phil Esposito? Two-time Cup winner with the Boston Bruins and Hockey Hall of Famer? That would be the one.
The only player standing ahead of Patrice Bergeron in terms of playoff points is Ray Bourque, who amassed a total of 161 points in 180 playoff games as a Boston Bruin.
In his 10 years’ worth of Stanley Cup playoffs experience, Bergeron has amassed 103 total points in 133 games. He just edges out teammate David Krejci, who just recently cracked the 100-points club.
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Bergeron’s average time on ice has never crept below 17 minutes during the playoffs (settling for an average of 19:32 minutes across 133 games) and has always managed to keep his face-off win percentage well above 50% (the average an astonishing 58.6%).
Patrice Bergeron has proven himself to be a necessity for the Bruins through his determined postseason play. Despite some wonkiness with the ‘Perfection Line’ against the Blues, Boston Bruins fans should still thank some kind of higher power for Bergeron’s steadiness thus far.
This postseason, Bergeron is the fifth-highest scorer among all skaters with 17 points through 21 games. If we’re just looking at the Boston Bruins, he trails only line-mate Brad Marchand for most points.
The Bruins’ dependable alternate captain has come in especially handy during the playoffs in terms of bolstering Boston’s biggest strength: its first-place power play.
He’s a big reason as to why it has been so deadly – he’s scored 7 of the team’s 23 power play goals, his latest coming as the first strike in Game 3’s 7-2 bloodbath victory over the Blues.
And he’s been a big momentum changer during games as well, tallying 13 takeaways of the puck.
Looking at some scary fancy stats, we can see how truly indispensable Bergeron’s been this playoffs cycle. At even strength, Bergeron’s Corsi For (CF) registers at a 56.0, meaning that the Bruins were more likely to control the puck when Bergeron hit the ice. This is higher than anyone else on the team.
And what does increased puck possession get us? More scoring chances, theoretically.
This series against the Blues has been uncharacteristically quiet for him (1G, 3A, 4P), but he showed his usual brilliance with a three-point performance in Game 3.
I would hate to jinx anything, but I simply can’t help but remind myself of the words of a young Jack Eichel.
Next. Does Vaakanainen replace Chara for Game 5?. dark
To paraphrase: “Ray, Bergy’s comin’ for ya!”
Statistics courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com.