Boston Bruins: 3 Key Players and Their Out-of-Character Struggles
By Luke Ryan
Patrice Bergeron
Perhaps the most surprising name on the list of players struggling since the restart is Boston Bruins veteran first-line center, Patrice Bergeron.
However, that has been exactly the case. Despite being a strong candidate for the Selke Trophy and usually being one of the more consistent players in the league, Bergeron hasn’t seemed quite right since play resumed.
The usually unflappable Bergeron has a giveaway to his name, which even though it sounds silly given such a small even-strength sample size of just 30 minutes, speaks volumes to him not being himself.
More from Bruins News
- Bruins release Prospects Challenge roster, schedule Tuesday
- Bruins bringing back familiar forward on tryout contract
- The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
- NHL Network lists Ullmark as sixth-best goalie in the league
- The Lasting Legacy of David Krejci
In the regular season, Bergeron played 61 games and only had 17 giveaways total when the two sides were evenly matched. On average, he made one such mistake every 47 minutes on the ice at even-strength.
Perhaps we put too much into this singular statistic, perhaps it’s merely a case, as Krug suggested, that the Boston Bruins haven’t been able to find a play-off level intensity to their game just yet.
Far from just that stat-line though, it’s everywhere that he hasn’t looked quite himself. His face-off percentage, while still above 50% isn’t anywhere near his regular season numbers.
He even has the fourth line grouping being preferred for defensive zone draws. In itself, that’s not wholly unusual, especially with the Bruins’ reliance upon their top line to produce offense, but it’s still somewhat telling for a perennial Selke Trophy candidate.
Given his maintenance days and missed practices, you have to wonder whether there’s a little more occurring than meets the eye. There’s every chance Bergeron could be playing injured or at least definitely not at 100% fitness.
It’s hard to speculate given how little we find out about injuries at this point, but something certainly seems off for a player that is usually one of the Boston Bruins’ most reliable and consistent on the ice.