Patrice Bergeron pumps up his teammates
Garnet Hathaway has been a Bruin for a little over two weeks, but he’s come to appreciate Patrice Bergeron’s skills as a captain even more than he expected to.
And his estimation went up even more on Saturday.
The B’s were down 2-0 to the Detroit Red Wings and not playing very well when Bergeron, who would score the eventual equalizer, gathered his teammates and refocused them. From that point on, the B’s marched their way to a 3-2 victory.
“He brought us together. He’s a great leader,” said Hathaway, who scored the third period game-winner. “We lean on him a lot and I think it’s a huge testament to how he is and his character. You look around the room and you see guys of high character working hard for each other.”
What was Bergeron’s message?
“What can we change? We know we can change, and what are we going to do?” responded Hathaway. “We can’t change the two goals that went in, so what can we alter to get back in the game? And just take a breath. This team is great at calming down. There’s no rush. There’s 50 minutes left in the game. There was a lot of time and it was just recollecting ourselves and taking a breath and settling.”
Hathaway had certainly heard of Bergeron’s reputation, but his eyes have been opened in the short time he’s been here.
“He’s exceeded (expectations), I would say,” said Hathaway. “It’s the dayin, day-out. A lot of guys in this room, but him especially, are trying to get better every day. That’s an unbelievable guy to have in this room, to have for this franchise. There’s a reason guys look up to him and I’m really excited to have him as my captain.”
Hathaway’s fellow fourth-liner AJ Greer also found some inspiration in Bergeron’s quick pep talk.
“He basically just told us ‘We’ve been here before and we haven’t shown them anything of what we’re capable of’,” said Greer. “Again, that’s a true leader coming in and gathering the group. We know what we need to do but for Bergy to come in and gather us all together, it’s an important thing to do as a team and as a band of brothers, because it just makes everyone take a breath and look at the scoreboard and realize there’s a lot of time left in this game. So he really just kind of made us calm down and told us that we need to stick to the process and stick to winning the next shift and making sure everyone does their job the right way and it’ll contribute to the result.” …
D-lightful
The B’s have been getting yeoman’s work out of the top two defensemen, Hampus Lindholm and Charlie Mcavoy.
On Saturday, Lindholm got his eighth goal of the year by Magnus Hellberg to start the B’s comeback. Coach Jim Montgomery is amazed at the way Lindholm can seemingly flip a switch.
“The thing that sticks out to me about Lindholm is, when things aren’t going well, his belief in himself and his ability to make a difference. The confidence is unreal to me,” said Montgomery. “If I look at the Pittsburgh game (on Nov. 1 when the B’s erased a 5-2 deficit and Lindholm won it in overtime), I think that first period wasn’t a good period for him. He might have been minus-2. But he ends up with four points that night. I’ve seen it repeatedly. There was one game I thought he wasn’t very good. It was the end of the backto-back game in Calgary. In the third period, all of a sudden, I don’t know if he found the fountain of youth or something or did someone just inject him with steroids? Because he’s just flying around. That’s his ability within a game to find his elite level. It’s pretty impressive.”
Lindholm is a leagueleading plus-40, but for Montgomery, that doesn’t begin to tell the story about him.
“His contributions have been immense, much more so than (his plus/ minus),” said Montgomery. “His plus/minus isn’t reflective of how valuable he’s been and neither are his points. I think of how dominant he’s been at both ends of the ice has been more reflective of how valuable he’s been to our success.”
Mcavoy didn’t pick up a point on Saturday but he sent the fourth line off on a 3-on-2 that won the game and he was all over the ice as the B’s tried to come back. He fired 10 shots, landing five.
“He’s just dominant physically, he kills plays, he ends plays and then he makes plays with his legs or his mind or with his hands,” said Montgomery. “We’re lucky that we have a defenseman like him and Lindholm and the D corps we have.” …
Upcoming
Montgomery expected the club to bring Jakub Lauko on the five-game road trip as an extra forward. …
Jeremy Swayman will get the start on Sunday in Detroit in the second half of the back-to-back.