The young and the limitless
MICK COLAGEO, Inside the Bruins
ANDREW T. GALLAGHER/Standard-Times special
Patrice Bergeron is quietly making a name for himself as one of the NHL's elite rookies. |
The skinny on Patrice Bergeron at last June's NHL Draft was that he was, in fact, skinny.
"I always keep growing, so they don't think about that," said Bergeron. "I was 5-foot-11 last year and now I'm 6-1."
The scary thing is he may not be done growing. Imagine if this kid keeps getting bigger and stronger for a couple of more years. What then? Have the Bruins got themselves another Joe Thornton?
Thornton was universally believed to be the prize of the 1997 draft, but this pick, be it a stroke of genius or a stroke of luck, came out of nowhere.
How did everyone else miss the bus on this kid?
Last season, his last with Acadie-Bathurst (Junior A), Bergeron topped out at 180 pounds. This year he's up to 195, which is impressive considering that most NHL rookies tip the training-camp scale at one number and have a difficult time maintaining that weight under the grind of games, practice and travel.
At 18, Bergeron is the youngest player in the National Hockey League, and he's left many teams' amateur scouts dumbfounded with his progress.
He wasn't supposed to make the Bruins this year. Like most second-round picks, he was expected to play at least one more season in Junior A.
Had Boston's prospects playing in Providence not had such a disastrous showing last September in Wilmington, Bergeron might not have even gotten a long enough look to show what he do at the varsity level. But Andy Hilbert was out with a bad groin pull, Ivan Huml looked stuck at the plateau he was on last year when he was sent to the minors, and Martin Samuelsson was still trying to figure out how to use his speed on the smaller North American rink.
Enter Bergeron, who produced in rookie scrimmages, then varsity scrimmages, then the annual Black and White game. At every juncture, onlookers waited for the proverbial reality check to kick in, for the kid to hit the wall and prove there couldn't have been 44 wrong decisions before Bergeron heard his name called.
But here we are, at the beginning of the new year, and Bergeron is the redeeming value of what has otherwise been a dismal 2003 for the Bruins.
"I'm a little bit surprised," admitted Bergeron. "Now that I'm here, I'm more confident, so I'll start making my place here."
Still waiting for Bergeron to hit the wall, the Islanders stood and watched Saturday as Bergeron took a finished off a nice play started by Sergei Samsonov in the second period of a 3-3 tie at the FleetCenter.
Bergeron now has 10 goals and is on a 20-goal pace. The last Bruins rookie to top the 20-goal mark was Samsonov, who won Rookie of the Year honors in 1997-98.
NHL clubs have never stopped looking for the next Sergei Samsonov, but the Quebec Major Junior League hasn't produced a lot of first-round picks lately, except for cookie-cutter, butterfly goalies. And Bergeron hadn't exactly put up Mario Lemieux or Pierre Turgeon numbers in Junior A. His 23-50-73 totals in 70 games last season are not show-stopping by junior-hockey standards.
So, coming into the draft at what was widely believed to be an inflated 6-0 and 186, it wasn't surprising to see 44 players go to the draft podium ahead of Bergeron. The Bruins actually raised eyebrows when they chose the kid at No. 45.
"There are a lot of factors to that decision," said Bergeron. "I played only one year of juniors, so scouts didn't have that much time to look at me and make sure I'm a good prospect.
"I don't really think about that. I so happy to be in the second round. That's where I was expecting to get drafted so I'm really happy to be here."
A center from Ancienne-Lorette, which is right down the street from the Quebec Airport, Bergeron grew up a Nordiques fan. He'll really make you feel old when he tells you whom he emulated as a kid.
"Not that I would be like him because it's too good. But Peter Forsberg has always been my idol," he said. "I don't try to be as good as he is because he's a unique player."
Bergeron is deceptive in his own right. He has a funny, hard-to-read style. He makes you think he can't get around you, then he does. He makes you think he can't knock you down, then he does.
"It's how I play," he said. "I think people classify me as a playmaker, but I like to be physical, too."
In consecutive games against Ottawa in December, Bergeron sidelined the Senators' Anton Volchenkov (shoulder) and Vaclav Varada (knee) with hits deemed clean by officials. The Senators were outraged at his hits, which were not spectacular by any means, but carried enough force to create surprising injuries.
In his next game at Montreal, Bergeron ran into goalie Jose Theodore with some help from defenseman Craig Rivet. Theodore went after him and started a melee.
Bergeron would later run former Bruin Stephane Quintal into the goal post.
The mood of the Montreal crowd wasn't unlike the Boston Garden the night Pembroke native Kevin Stevens came into town as the enemy, beating up Jim Weimer and scoring a goal for the Penguins. It was a case of, "We hate this kid, but we wish he were on our team."
Along with the Canucks' Jason King and the Islanders' Trent Hunter, Bergeron's season has been among the NHL's three best rookies. And Bergeron has accomplished this while playing most of the season on the wing, a position he did not play growing up or in Junior A.
"No, never," he said.
Coach Mike Sullivan has most recently tried to jump-start his offense by pairing Bergeron with Samsonov and Joe Thornton.
The results have been good.
Two weeks ago, Bergeron switched from the wooden hockey stick he had grown up playing with to a popular one-piece composite model. The modern sticks shoot the puck harder, but make it harder to catch passes, an area where Bergeron excels anyway.
"I thought it was going to be a worse adaptation. The shot is better. Sometimes it bounce, but I'll adjust," he said. "I'm able to handle it. If I wasn't able, I won't make the change."
Just one of many changes that have left Bergeron unfazed and the undisputed bright spot of the Bruins' 2003.
Mick Colageo is a Standard-Times staff writer and co-hosts the New England Hockey Journal Show on WWZN-AM, a.k.a. "1510 The Zone" on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Material from beat writers, Web sites and wire reports was used in this column.
This story appeared on Page C1 of The Standard-Times on January 6, 2004.
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