Patrice Bergeron is not a name unknown to Bruins fans. For 9 years and 6 beyond the conclusion of this one, Patrice Bergeron has and will likely be the face of this Bruins offence. He was, is and will be the cool headed under pressure, unselfish but sick handed backbone to this team that many Bruins fans have not seen since the days of Orr and then later on Raymond Borque.
And yet in this day and age, he is underrated. Underrated compared to Zdeno Chara, underrated compared to Brad Marchand and labeled inferior to most other big time players on most other teams.
He is mislabeled.
You may call be crazy but I say this. When you take into account their contributions to their team that are represented by more than statistics, Bergeron may be the best leading player in the entire hockey league. Today I will narrow this down to the conversation of just two men. That is Bergeron vs. a certain man named Alex Ovechken and yes, Bergy is better. But hear me out.
Born in September of 1985, Alex Ovechkin has been the perennial leader of the Washington Capitals. At 28 years old, the Capitals remain the only team Alex has played for in the 8 seasons since he was drafted number one overall and frankly, the Capitals have never had anything to complain about. 656 games into his career, Ovechkin has scored 411 goals 4 times scoring 50 or more in 1 season while also adding 4 dominant 100+ point seasons.
All and all, "Ovi" as he is called by his fans has averaged 1.16 points per game since joining the NHL 8 years ago. This season, Ovechkin leads the league in goals with 40 and since the last month of last season has actually nabbed 54 goals. He is without question the hottest player in hockey. But the best?
Just as Alex Ovechkin has pulled away from the pack, Patrice Bergeron has stayed with it, bettering the quality of play of his entire team. Statistically, he is on the good side of mediocre scoring just about 20 goals per season and assisting on around 30 others. But as reflected by the one stat that everyone overlooks, there is one category that Bergeron is numerically stellar at. Over the course of his career, Bergeron is a +95 while the all mighty Ovechkin sits at just +65 and is actually -17 in this 40 goal 2014 season.
You see+/- is a strong indicator of a players value to his team solely because it measures how many more or less goals scored by your team when you are on the ice than allowed by your team when you are on the ice. For Bergeron's being a +95 that means that though he definitely did not assist on all of those goals he not only played a role in goals scored by his team but back checked, threw hits and played smart on defense in order to limit the number of goals scored against his team that would shrink his differential that is represented by the +/-.
It is the intangibles of Patrice Bergeron that make him great and Claude Jullian recognizes that.
"To me, he’s always been that guy that’s that perfect fit. He’s as reliable defensively as he is offensively. He’s going to give you a fair amount of production and a fair amount of points, yet he’s going to give you that same kind of, I guess, comfort feeling in your end of the ice as well. Those guys are hard to find and when you have them, like I said, you try to hold onto them.”
Whether it be his 60%+ face off percentage, his mind numbing capabilities on defense or that ever present ability to score just when his team needs it most, Bergeron is a selfless player who's contributions to his team outweigh those made to his stat sheet. I don't know about you but to me a good player not only scores but makes those around him better. Bergeron scores, Bergeron fights but above all, he really does make those around him better.
He is a good player, much better than Ovechkin.
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