No. 1 – Patrice Bergeron
The Bruins’ new captain is off to a very good start in his 17-year in Boston. He is tied with Marchand with 18 points, but he leads the team with 11 assists along with his seven goals. He leads the Black and Gold in power play points at nine with four goals and five assists.
A valuable penalty killer with Marchand, he also has a shorthanded goal. While Bergeron has been on the scoresheet nearly on a nightly basis, he has been very good on faceoffs.
In his last four games, he has won over 50-percent (%) of his faceoffs, including going 24-for-29 in Saturday night’s loss to the New York Islanders. In a win over the Rangers on Feb. 10, he went 15-for-20 on faceoffs and he set up Marchand for a game-winning goal 36 seconds into the extra session.
He has a 60 Corsi-for percentage (CF%) and a 60.9 Fenwick-for percentage (FF%). Playing with two top-10 wingers doesn’t hurt, but with Pastrnak missing the first seven games of the season and coach Bruce Cassidy struggling to find a replacement on the first line, Bergy’s play hasn’t missed a beat.
It is going to be an interesting next couple of games for the Bruins as Cassidy on Monday tinkered with his lines in practice and moved Pasta down and Jake DeBrusk up with Bergeron and Marchand. Despite the switch, don’t expect to see a drop-off in Bergy’s early-season play that should have him in the running for another Lady Byng Trophy at the end of the year.