Bergeron is ‘perfection’ on the backcheck
Captain’s play deserving of a Selke Award nomination
There are plenty of fancy stats that will tell you that, at the age of 36, Patrice Bergeron should not only be among the finalists the Selke Award for an 11th time, the Bruins centerman should win his record fifth award given to the league’s top defensive forward this year.
But the eyeball test is pretty darn convincing, too.
Case in point was his backcheck in the B’s 2-1 victory over the Penguins on Saturday. In the first period with the B’s already up 2-0, Bergeron was fairly deep in the offensive zone when Brad Marchand’s attempt to get the puck deep was stopped on along the left wall.
Bergeron got on his horse and began to grind his way back to the defensive zone. Jeff Carter pulled up along the right boards and sent a pass to Jason Zucker in the middle of the ice for what looked like a glorious scoring opportunity. But it evaporated when Bergeron got back in time to poke the pass away and eliminate the threat.
But the captain did not stop there. As Zucker ever so briefly slowed up after his scoring chance was thwarted, Bergeron beat him to the loose puck in the corner and was able to push it down to Brandon Carlo, who helped start an odd-man rush the other way for Marchand and
Not surprisingly, coach Bruce Cassidy used that clip in the team’s video session before practice in Monday morning.
“Good defense turns into offense. That’s the sell we’ve been doing here for years,” said Cassidy. “That’s what we can’t lose, that good defense. And it really paid off the other day. It’s a 2-1 game. We’re not scoring as much, the power play’s not generating much for us. So you have to be comfortable in those games.”
Asked about the clip, Curtis Lazar smiled widely.
“It was perfection,” said Lazar. “That’s why he’s the frontrunner for the Selke each and every year. It’s not only that he gets his stick in the play to break up a 3-on-2, but it’s his next play with his stick on puck and it leads to an odd-man rush the other way. It’s such a simple thing, where it comes down to stick position. But a lot of guys lose that. You don’t have two hands on your stick or you’re just unaware of the situation. But he knows what’s going on around him each and every time. He’s the perfect teacher down the stretch that we can learn a lot from. He obviously leads by example, but he’s also a great vocal guy for us as well. You just watch the compete level and the detail he brings, we can all learn a lot from Bergy.”
Blues are a different animal
The B’s were seeing the Blues for the second time in a week and they were getting them when they were smoking hot. The Blues entered 11-0-1 in their previous 12 games, including last week’s 4-2 win in Boston, and have become something of an offensive juggernaut. They went into Tuesday game fourth in goal scoring, averaging 3.76 goals per game, and are second on the power play (26.7%).
Things have changed since the Blues’ heavy squad beat the B’s in seven games in the Stanley Cup Finals three years ago. If there’s a team that can beat Colorado in the West, it just might be St. Louis.
“I’m sure they can be hard when they need to be, but it looks like it’s more like they’re going to be ‘get up the ice and go,’” said Cassidy. “I don’t want to say ‘trade chances’ because I don’t know if that’s accurate. We haven’t seen enough of them.
“But it looks like they’re more willing to do that than the last time we saw them in ’19, where it was play behind you, be physical, create forecheck turnovers, bigger bodied guys who get to the front of the net, playing off low-to-high, (former Blue and now Golden Knight Alex) Pietrangelo getting it to the net and whatnot. Obviously they have a few different pieces here now, guys who can generate a little more cycling off and then to the slot.”
Lazar bumps up
With David Pastrnak still not ready, Lazar was getting his chance to play up in the lineup with Taylor Hall and
Erik Haula.
“He’s moved up but he should play the same game, get to the net, hopefully contribute off the rush by getting pucks off the wall. He’s usually been good at that,” said Cassidy. “It’s a different mindset than the line he’s typically on.
“They’re more play behind the D, whereas Hall and Haula can establish stuff of the rush. Taylor does a good job of backing people off. Haula finds the soft ice. Players shouldn’t try to change what they truly are but they have to understand how they’re going to generate offense differently than what they’re used to.”