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2013-2014 Player Report Card: Patrice Bergeron

The greatest Boston Bruins player of this generation reestablished himself as an elite goal scorer, reaching the 30 goal mark for the second time in his career.

By mduart01
Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

I dread the day when #37 will be raised to the rafters of the Boston Garden, because it will mean Patrice Bergeron is no longer playing for the Bruins. Few could have imagined at the time what an incredible player the Bruins selected in the 2003 NHL Draft at #45 overall. In fact, take a look at that draft, often cited as the greatest Entry Draft in NHL history. Remarkably, given the talent of that draft, I'd be hard pressed to trade Bergeron for any of the forwards selected before him, save maybe Corey Perry or Ryan Getzlaf. It is difficult to find words in the English language to characterize Bergeron's incredibleness...so here's a tribute to him in his native language of French:

Depuis son arrivée à Boston à l'âge de 18 ans en 2004, Bergeron s'est révélé un leader autant sur la patinoire qu'à l'extérieur. On dirait qu'il est l'âme de l'équipe, alors même que le capitaine devrait être au coeur. C'est pourquoi alors il est actuellement l'un des assistants capitaines des Bruins. Il donne plusieres examples aux coéquipiers, dont le plus notable est le célèbre "Patrice's Pals." Depuis la saison 2006, il a mis sur pied un programme qui offre aux enfants de diverses organisations caritatives la possibilité d'assister aux matchs de l'équipe dans une loge et de le rencontrer par la suite. Ces acte de charité sont devenue renommées dans la communauté de Boston. Ses réalisations sur la patinoire sont même incomparable. Attaquant pour le 2eme trio de Claude Julien,  il décroche la Coupe Stanley 2011, devenant le 25eme membre du "Triple Gold Club" avec la médaille d'or aux Jeux olympiques de 2010 (et bien 2014 aussi), et le championnat du monde 2004 avec le Canada. Il ne faut pas oublier que grâce à la grève patronale du 2004-2005, Bergeron participe au championnat du monde junior 2005, d'où il remporte naturellement la médaille d'or.

If you are still reading, God bless you...

Now let's get down to business (in English, I promise you):

Patrice Bergeron GP G A Pts +/- SOG S% TOI/G
2013-2014 Regular Season 80 30 32 62 38 243 12.3 17:59
2014 Playoffs 12 3 6 9 1 40 7.5 19:42

At the NHL Awards this past Tuesday, Bergeron won his second Frank J. Selke Trophy awarded to the forward who demonstrates the most skill in the defensive component of the game. Here are some defensive statistics Bergeron ranked in the Top 5 among all NHL forwards (min 72 GP):

  • CF% (#1 overall)
  • CF% Rel, which measures CF% relative to team CF% while player is not on the ice (#1 overall)
  • FF% (#1 overall)
  • FF% Rel, which measures FF% relative to team FF% while player is not on the ice (#1 overall)
  • Total Faceoffs Won (#1 overall)
  • Faceoff Win % (#4, behind Matt Hendricks, Boyd Gordon and Paul Gaustad)
  • Shots For % (#2, behind Anze Kopitar)
  • Shots For % Rel (#2 behind Jakub Voracek)
  • +/- (#2 overall, behind David Krejci)
It is also interesting to note that Bergeron ranked #18 in worst ZS% Rel, and when you look at how he compared to his fellow Selke nominees, the difference in ZS is pronounced. It is amazing to me that Bergeron was able to maintain these defensive numbers while consistently starting off in his own zone or the neutral zone much more than the offensive zone.

Then, there are the goals:


It should be noted that Bergeron was able to produce the best goal scoring season since his first concussion with the second lowest TOI/G since that time as well.

Let's not draw this out any further...

Grade: A+

The future face of NHL 15 (suck it, Subban) is your (but more so my) Patrice Bergeron. May his reign be ever joyous and prosperous.