HAPPY CAMPERS
Sid, Patrice are fire on ice
Every now and then, when an opponent thinks they know how to stop Sidney Crosby and Patrice Bergeron, Canada’s dynamic hockey duo reverts to a tactic that keeps the other team guessing. They go bilingual. “Yeah, sometimes we’ll start speaking French instead of English out there,” Bergeron said with a chuckle. “You never know who might be listening.”
For more than a decade, Crosby and Bergeron have combined to create a swath of destruction on the international hockey scene, an on-ice relationship that first was forged back at the 2005 World Junior Championship. It was at that event that Team Canada coach Brent Sutter decided to partner Bergeron with Crosby, who was more than two years younger.
“I was 17 and he was 19,” Crosby said. “It goes back a fair bit and we’re familiar with each other.”
The gold medal they won at that tournament in Grand Forks, S.D., kicked off an impressive run of accomplishments, one in which they combined to win championships at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2014 Olympics in Sochi while representing Canada. In each instance, they clicked together as linemates, a trend that is repeating itself at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
In Canada’s dominating 6-0 thumping of the Czech Republic on Saturday, the Crosby-Bergeron-Brad Marchand line set the tone right from the opening faceoff, combining for seven points. Crosby and Marchand led the way with three points each, while Bergeron’s goal just before the horn to end the first period put Canada up by three and pretty much crushed the hopes of the Czechs.
So, what is it that makes Crosby and Bergeron gel so easily, so dangerously, out on the ice for all these years?
That’s the question Postmedia posed to both players. In the end, here’s how they break it down in their own words.
SIDNEY CROSBY:
“We’ve known each other for a long time. And we’ve grown with experiences right away.
“I think it just comes down to we both like to support the puck. We both like to create turnovers. Neither one of us likes to wait for things to happen. We like to dictate things a little bit with turnovers and jump on pucks. The fact that (Bergeron) can play both positions — centre and wing — that kind of helps. There are some different situations where you have to be flexible out on the ice. I think the give-and-go game is one we like to play.
“When it comes to chemistry with us, it doesn’t really take any time at all. As soon as we get out there, there’s chemistry there. When you are lucky to find chemistry like that with someone, you hope you can produce and you hope you can make things happen. Hopefully we can continue to do that.”
PATRICE BERGERON:
“I think the chemistry was there right away. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we do a lot of communicating on and off the ice.
“In my case, I’m just trying to read plays, play my game and read what he’s going to do. He’s always a step ahead of everyone, so I have to make sure I read off that.
“Look at (Saturday versus the Czech Republic). He was amazing. He gave the energy and jump we needed as a team and we fed off of him. We’ve done that for a few years now.
“His speed and the way he makes plays at full speed opens up a lot of things on the ice. He does a lot of things like backchecking that doesn’t go unnoticed by his teammates. You realize what is going on and how much of a special player he is.”