Reaction to Patrice Bergeron Retirement w/ Mick Colageo | Pucks w/ Haggs - video Dailymotion

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Welcome to another episode of Pucks with Haggs, where Joe Haggerty is joined by the esteemed Mick Colageo of The Standard Times. Joe and Mick discuss the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and the lasting legacy the Bruins Captain left on the team, Boston and their careers.  0:00 Intro 1:40 Mick's reaction 5:00 Bergeron was special 7:30 Life after Patrice 11:30 Berg's influence on the young generations 13:30 Bruins have been blessed 17:20 Do Bruins have a 1C?  Pucks with Haggs is brought to you by:  FanDuel Sportsbook, exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Media Network. Get a NO SWEAT FIRST BET up to $1000 DOLLARS when you visit https://FanDuel.com/BOSTON! That’s $1000 back in BONUS BETS if your first bet doesn’t win.  21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. $10 Deposit req. Refund issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com/sportsbook. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MI, NJ, OH, PA, IL, TN, VA), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), Gamblinghelplinema.org or call (800)-327-5050 for 24/7 support (MA), visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-522-4700 (WY), or visit www.1800gambler.net (WV).  Factor. Visit https://factormeals.com/HAGGS50 to get 50% off your first box! Factor is America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit, can help you fuel up fast with ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission.

Transcript

00:00 with Hags is brought to you by FanDuel, the exclusive wagering partner of the CLN Action

00:04 Media Network. And welcome to another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast. I believe this is the

00:11 20th episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast. Let's cut the ribbons, send out the balloons,

00:16 have big party celebrations. First thing I want to do before I introduce our guest today,

00:21 Mick Colaggio is, as always, give a little love to our sponsors. First, we've got FanDuel Sportsbook,

00:28 the exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Network. We're always happy that they're riding

00:32 shotgun with us. And the other one today, as always, look at this, Factor Meals, not only

00:39 a pitchman, also a client. I had the, let's see, what was it? The Indian butter chicken for lunch

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01:00 use Hags 50 code to get 50% off. Thank you, Factor Meals for being a sponsor. And now

01:06 let's get to our guest from the Standard Times, longtime hockey writer, Mick Colaggio. And today,

01:11 we're going to talk about Patrice Bergeron in light of the retirement announcement,

01:15 in light of the press conference that he had with all the reporters at the Garden on Wednesday.

01:20 And really, I wanted Mick on because Mick was one of those people on the ground floor with number

01:25 37, just like me, and just like a few lucky select others on the Bruinsbeat that were actually

01:32 there covering Patrice Bergeron in '03, '04, when he was an 18-year-old kid, fresh from Quebec.

01:39 And Mick, just what was going through your mind when you watched the press conference,

01:43 when you heard he was going to retire? What sort of were your immediate thoughts just about having

01:50 covered this guy, covered Hall of Famer from the beginning of his career to the end?

01:53 I think watching Berger play center for the Providence Bruins in the lockout year,

02:02 and looking forward to him coming back to Boston, and that role, which didn't really come to

02:08 fruition until the trade, Joe Thornton. It started out on the wing again. And as the Bruins were

02:16 trying to somehow put together a team. And I think that missing the NHL, Bergeron sort of became the

02:25 epicenter of that by watching him in Providence in the middle, negotiate the middle of the ring,

02:30 getting to see how good he is as a centerman, seeing the chemistry he had with Brad Boyes,

02:36 and just looking at the way that he was coming along and really gaining an appreciation because

02:45 he's not that player who jumps over the boards and the first two strides you say, "Oh my God."

02:51 That's not what he does. He wins you over through a series of games of watching him

02:59 think the game, play the game, decide how to play the game, both sides of the puck

03:06 with his teammates. And it just all grew from there. So it's just been so many ups and downs

03:14 and so much life lived with this guy, including the career-threatening concussion that he sustained

03:21 in the first Claude Julien year early on. There's just so much there that happened that led up to

03:28 the Stanley Cup. And when it finally came, it just seemed like his role just grew from there.

03:37 And I think that I just feel like this guy's sort of been part of my life.

03:42 Just like when you snip off 20 years and you say, "Okay, I've been obsessed with the Bruins

03:51 since the mid-60s." Right before Orr got there, I started really getting into it. And hockey fan

04:00 first, black and gold bleeder second. But Bergeron's just one of those rare players who's

04:08 come along and sort of just become synonymous with my sense of who the Bruins are and who they are in

04:21 my life. So for me, letting go of Bergey at this point, it's going to leave a huge hole and I'm

04:28 not sure it's fully sunk in yet. No. I mean, it's going to sink in when we go to training camp and

04:34 we're in the locker room and he's not there. And he's not the guy that's present whenever we have

04:42 questions about the team, whether things are going well or things are going bad. That's when it's

04:46 going to hit. And that's going to be weird for me. My first year covering the team was his rookie

04:51 season, that '03-'04 season. So I have not known what it's like to cover the Boston Bruins when

04:56 Patrice Bergeron's not there, even if he was a younger player. And this is part of what I guess

05:02 I think of whenever I think of him as an elder statesman, a father of four, one of the faces of

05:08 the NHL, a Hall of Famer, is I always think back to that rookie year. And I think back to a shy kid

05:15 with peach fuzz that really was not sure about his English at all. It really didn't say much at all

05:23 and was really just sort of happy to be there. Nobody thought a second round pick that year was

05:28 going to make the team. And all of a sudden he comes in. Totally caught me off guard. I wasn't

05:32 ready for that. I had to be told, hey, he's really good. You should watch him. He's going to make the

05:37 team. Really? And it took me time to figure out why he's so good. Because that's unheard of.

05:44 Like what second round pick makes the NHL as an 18-year-old after he's drafted? Like that doesn't

05:49 happen. That's a rarity to see something like that happen, especially a kid that you really

05:56 haven't heard much about. But I also remember, distinctly remember, Mike Sullivan, whenever you

06:04 would ask him about Bergeron that entire year, he would get that funny smirk on his face like he knew

06:10 something. He was in on a secret that nobody else knew about, like how good that kid was going to

06:15 be. He knew immediately and early and often saying his praises. And you could tell he saw

06:22 what he was going to turn into if he was like that as an 18-year-old kid. And now he's become,

06:27 obviously, a legendary player, Stanley Cup winner, record holder in the NHL, Hall of Famer,

06:32 like all that stuff. It's funny how people in different layers, it takes them to come around.

06:40 I remember so many people putting together their Team Canada for the Olympics and having Bergeron

06:48 outside the top 12. And they're surprised, they're out of shock that he's on Crosby's line.

06:53 And then the revelation that they got watching, and I remember Damien Cox tweeting,

07:00 Toronto Star columnist, tweeting his amazement, "Bergeron always makes the right play."

07:11 No, it's like he was just discovering it.

07:13 Until you watch him a lot, you don't really get it. And then you start wanting to only view the

07:18 Bruins through that prism. Now we have to view it outside of that prism. That's going to be hard.

07:24 It's going to remind me what it was like as a fan to think of the Bruins after Bobby Orr,

07:29 after Ray Bourque. Certain people that come along that are so impactful and so consistent and so

07:36 much smack in the middle of the game, they're the engine that runs the game. And they're the engine

07:41 that provides the team its identity. And then they're gone. And now there's a reinvention that

07:47 must occur. Yeah. Is there a passing of the torch? Is there a mantle? Is there a culture? Can it

07:52 continue? Of course, it always has. But when I think of how rudderless the Bruins were after Ray

07:59 Bourque, it concerns me with this guy. Not because there aren't other great guys and players and

08:08 leaders and stuff that are deserving of carrying it forward. It's just that this guy was so

08:16 impactful, so consistent, so passionate, so present that it's hard to imagine the Bruins without

08:24 number 37 out there now. Been through this before. Yep, the sun will come up. The black and gold will

08:32 take the ice. They'll have a centennial season. And I'm grateful to have lived long enough to have

08:40 be in a position here where I'm anticipating this next difficult phase of Bruins hockey.

08:48 Yeah. And it's going to be interesting. From Bergeron's perspective, just first of all,

08:53 at the press conference, that seemed like a guy totally at ease with his decision, completely

08:59 happy, at peace, knows what he's doing, knows the decision he's making, has thought it through,

09:06 and is completely OK with it. And I thought it was interesting that it sounds like he's going

09:12 to be a little removed from the Bruins situation next year, as he probably will have to be,

09:16 kind of coming to terms with the retirement and all that. I don't think we're going to see him

09:20 much at the Garden. I don't think he's going to watch many games. He'll maybe watch a few.

09:25 But I think he's going to go pursue other things like he's wanted to for a long time. And I thought

09:32 all of that stuff, when he was talking about that and being excited about other things in his life,

09:37 and obviously spending way more time with his family, having four kids that are age seven and

09:42 under, that stuff I thought was really interesting to me. He knew it was time. And he was totally

09:50 OK with it. When you talk to other players like Sean Thornton, who was like-- I remember him

09:56 saying, they're going to have to tear the jersey off me to keep me from playing anymore. And

09:59 ultimately, that kind of did happen for him, where there's just going to be no room for him anywhere.

10:04 But a completely different side of the coin for Bergeron that I think speaks to the person that

10:10 he is. And part of what made him great was his approach to all of these things.

10:14 Yeah, I think so, too. He was completely immersed. He allowed the game to come to him.

10:20 And sort of reinvented himself. There are great creative players who come along in life,

10:26 whether it's Adam Oates or Marc Savard, or players who invent hockey as they see it,

10:33 as they play it. They wind up impacting the game. And other players learn from them and take new

10:40 things. So it isn't just he does all these things well and checks all these boxes because this is

10:46 what scouts want. This guy got out there and felt the game. And I think because of that,

10:52 we enjoyed an era of Bruins hockey where we could sort of feel it with him.

10:58 And his game. We talk about his game. And we all agree, not the fastest guy,

11:07 not the strongest guy. Although he won almost all of his battles. So there was definitely

11:12 plenty of strength there. But we're not talking about a big hitter. And certainly,

11:16 he modified his game where he really wasn't hitting much of anybody after that hit he took

11:21 in '07, '08 that wiped him out for the season. And that was kind of a big transformation point

11:26 for him and the kind of the way he played, no question about it. But we're not talking about

11:30 the most physical guy, the fastest guy, the most skilled guy in a lot of ways.

11:34 But I think he's had a huge influence on players in Boston, youth players, and something he wanted

11:41 to be a role model for on and off the ice. On the ice, it was about playing the right way. It was

11:47 about hustling on the back check. It was about paying attention to details in the face-off

11:50 circle. It was about practicing the spots you were going to get to in the offensive zone where you

11:55 were going to do your damage and becoming perfect and 100% deadly from those areas, from the slot

12:00 when he was shooting the puck. But you see generations now of kids that play, and they play

12:05 center, and they play the game the right way. And they're not cheating the zone, and they're not

12:09 flying out, and they're not taking off going the other way when the puck is in their zone because

12:13 they watched Patrice Bergeron play his entire career doing things the right way and making

12:18 sure he was playing at both ends. And that's going to be part of his legacy is the amount of local

12:23 players that have come out of New England that play the Bergeron way because they watched him

12:28 for so long, with my son being one of them now. He plays center, and he is a two-way player that

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13:30 I think if there's a statue for Bergeron, it should have two parts. One is him out on the

13:36 ice playing and the other is kid sit on the bench watching and his father's hand on his shoulder

13:46 and pointing. And this is such a great part of the game that's going to be missed here.

13:58 The Bruins have been blessed to have some really incredible and diverse personalities reinventing

14:05 the game of hockey before our very eyes. I remember Cap Rader calling me up one morning after

14:10 he was out of Pete Bruins game scouting for the San Jose Sharks. And he's like, "Hey, I was just

14:17 there watching this kid, Creechie. Him and Bruce Lee. They're going to be good. They're going to

14:22 be NHLers. That Creechie, he can play right now." And he wound up getting his cup of coffee and got

14:29 knocked into a Palookaville by Adam Pear staring down at the puck in the crease.

14:36 But the next year he triumphantly began his NHL career and he went on to become a guy who led the

14:43 playoffs in scoring in two different years. Andre Kopitar, I think, is the only other one to do that

14:47 in this era. Maybe Crosby. I'm not sure. But to have two guys like that who sat kitty corner in

14:55 the old version of the TD Garden Fleet Center locker room, they each had a corner of it.

15:02 They shared that corner of the locker room from six feet in on either side. It was those two guys,

15:08 but they were never on the ice together unless the Bruins needed a goal with a minute left in a game.

15:13 And other than that, but the two thirds of every hockey game, the opponents had to look at one of

15:19 those two guys. And that is really the basis for the success of the Boston Bruins ever since Mark

15:27 Savard's career was unfairly and criminally derailed. That's really been the foundational

15:34 aspect, the basis of the Bruins. And now they go from having both of those guys this past season,

15:41 last season, whatever you want to start calling it now. And now nobody's talking about number 46,

15:47 by the way. That's a situation that's not officially got a bow on it. For all of the

15:54 speculation, there's been a lot of assumption, I think, tacit assumption that Crecce's not coming

16:01 back. And it was a sad ending for both of those guys. And it'd be pretty cool if Crecce did now,

16:10 but who knows what will happen? Well, I think there's even a scenario with Crecce where,

16:15 you know, maybe he starts the year not playing. Maybe he recognizes that 82 games is too much

16:23 to play at this point. And, and, you know, he, he was banged up at the end of the year,

16:28 going down the stretch and in the playoffs. And, you know, as I've said several times on here,

16:34 his family was living in South Carolina and he was away from his kids for, you know, weeks and

16:37 months at a time and his wife that's had to be incredibly difficult. So maybe, maybe it becomes,

16:43 you know, he sees where the Bruins are at around Christmas time and, you know, signs and comes on

16:48 for the second half of the year. Maybe that is still a remote possibility if he doesn't decide

16:53 to retire. And maybe that's something the Bruins can, you know, sort of hang their hat on or have

16:57 hopes for kind of like they were hoping Bergeron was going to have second thoughts about retiring

17:02 and, you know, get on out on the ice one time and say, oh, I'm I miss it. I want to come back. But

17:07 I think those are not to leave the door open. No, of course you got it. You got to do it. But

17:11 at the same time but, but I think they're full steam ahead on whatever plan B is because they

17:16 know that, you know, plan a for both of them is, is likely not to happen. So what's interesting is,

17:22 you know, how much do we read into the way that coil and Zaka played in the Florida series when

17:32 Bergeron and Cratey were out as to, you know, what they might be capable of if they're given

17:39 the reins as, you know, center one and center two to start this year or, you know, how much do you

17:46 feel like they need to make a move for another, you know, number one center, a legit number one

17:51 center that's going to be able to give you something of, you know, what Patrice Bergeron

17:56 gave, even if nobody's ever going to fill those skates. Yeah. Tough question. Given the fact that

18:03 they were so handcuffed to deal with it the year that they would need to do it the most. And

18:07 as you've alluded on my prior appearances here, that the cap will go up next season.

18:15 Sierra, the flat cap has gotten Bruins in a situation where they, and they were always

18:22 going to slide Zaka over a hollow, even though he was scratched the same night as Jake the brusque.

18:29 And he also picked up his game after that and really became a useful player for the Bruins and

18:36 made him marketable in that deal for Zaka. And as the Bruins looking back at that infamous draft

18:41 to pluck the number six overall pick a guy who had taught the Bruins on a couple of situations

18:48 and impressed upon them, this guy's got some big boy hockey ability. He's Kate. She makes the

18:54 rink look short and make zones look short. Zaka can, can pass the puck. He can shoot the puck.

19:00 And so, you know, it was, if the formula could ever work for guy one season to say, okay,

19:06 you're going to spend your, your season skating with David Creechie and half the time you're

19:12 going to be watching Patrice Bergeron. So you have, you know, 40 minutes a game here,

19:19 where you're going to be getting, going to school. And when that's over, I think it was always that

19:25 we want to see Zaka's upside. They got him for this purpose. Sweeney loves his players who can

19:31 play more than one position, but in particular, he was anticipating this scenario and certainly

19:37 the possibility thereof and got Zaka with that in mind. You know, I mean, it'd be nice if Matt,

19:44 Matthew Potra was a couple more years along, may, you know, can he do it at 19? If you put

19:51 him between Marcia and the Bruss, only Campbell, you know, tell us whether, and then those nine

19:56 fateful games, whether or not that's a scenario we can realistically hope for, but boy, they could

20:03 sure use to have a, have a Barry Peterson scenario like 81, 82, and have somebody pop like that and

20:10 have an internal solution. That would be awesome. It would be, I mean, I, having watched Potra at

20:17 development camp, I'm not sure that's quite where he is yet. Just, you know, he wasn't dominant to

20:22 the point where I'm going to give him top six minutes at center on an NHL team. That's exactly

20:28 what they need is for something like that to happen because in the ideal world, as you're

20:33 alluding to, I think Zaka is your number two center, you know, and you, you coil would be

20:38 ideally on a really good team and number three center as he's been, you know, the last few years

20:43 for the Bruins rather than once you talk about Zaka, number one, coil number two or coil number

20:49 one, Zaka number two, you're, you're talking about at least one player is sort of playing up too far.

20:55 And the driver there isn't, isn't really to me, whether you're, whether you're one or two, as

21:03 much as it is, is who your line mates, what's the right matchups, what's the top six, how does it

21:08 best work? I remember in the Julian era, you know, it didn't matter who Bergey's line mates were

21:16 because he knew he was going to get a great three zone, 200 foot game out of him, no matter what.

21:20 So we had to make sure he took care of Savard, then take care of Crecci and then Bergeron gets

21:26 what's ever left and gets his top nine minutes in his shutdown role. And that obviously evolved as

21:32 the, you know, as the seasons went along and Bergey's role morphed into a much more of an

21:38 ozone start guy. And, you know, it's, it's that's one like you talking about doing a

21:45 Patrice Bergeron retrospective today. To me, that's more his legacy than the Selke legacy

21:50 is that Bergeron has been able to continue improving himself in different ways and

21:56 morphing his game to meet the needs of his team. You know, I remember he practicing that one-timer,

22:02 you know, before pasta came along and Bergey's really trying to get that one-timer down and,

22:06 and he wound up starting to do it and, and it sort of became his role for a little while, but.

22:12 He perfected the bumper position though on the power play. He perfected that, you know, once he

22:18 that honed in on that's what he was doing and the shot, the shot from the bumper position became

22:23 deadly and accurate and he would pick up pucks no matter what the pass or the puck that was coming

22:28 at him. And he would fire off a good shot, a shot that always surprised the goalie. Like

22:33 he turned into a huge weapon. Yeah. He never stops trying to figure out how to be better.

22:40 Yep. So Bergey's going to have to do something with all that energy when he, you know, has his

22:46 convulsions and starts breathing the air of I'm not a hockey player anymore.

22:51 Then he's going to have to start figuring out where to put all that.

22:53 Yes. Yeah. Good luck. Maybe he's going to run the marathon like Z, joked about that yesterday.

23:00 Maybe that'll become something, a short-term goal for him, but God bless him. And, you know,

23:05 getting back to what we were talking about with, with Zaka and Coyle, I am heartened to a degree

23:11 by what I saw in the series against Florida. They had Florida on the ropes with those two as your

23:16 top two centers, you know, they played well and they fit in with the wingers and, you know, both

23:22 of them are good two-way players. The one thing about Zaka that concerns you is, you know, the

23:26 face-offs and some of the other things that he's not even close to, you know, Bergeron level with,

23:31 and, you know, he'll have Chris Kelly and guys like that there to help him after sort of going

23:35 to school and watching Bergeron and Crecce last year. But, you know, there's some level of

23:40 encouragement that those guys could be able to handle it at least for a little while. And, you

23:46 know, at some point, I don't know that this is going to happen in the summer. I don't know this

23:50 is going to happen in training camp, but you know, there are going to be centers available in trade.

23:56 Elias Lindholm, Calgary Flames is most likely going to get moved, I would think at some point,

24:01 and his cap number is actually not that bad. It would be manageable.

24:04 That makes it so attractive that that's going to be a mother load of compensation.

24:09 Of course. And that's like where the rubber meets the road for the Bruins is do they have the assets

24:13 to be able to make a deal like that? And, you know, Schaeffle is another guy, obviously,

24:16 that's been mentioned a lot. I don't know that he's necessarily a great fit because he's more

24:21 of just a pure offensive number one center. I don't know that he brings a lot of the two way

24:27 stuff that Bergeron brings to the table. And certainly, you know, he's not kind of a leader.

24:31 Like, I think he was one of the people that is part of this Winnipeg situation that has

24:36 exasperated bonus and Paul Maurice before him.

24:39 Well, that's the problem is, is if you're not sure where's the baby and where's the bath water

24:45 in Winnipeg, then you better steer clear and do it a different way. You got to be real sure about

24:49 the player you get. Yep. And I think that's where Lindholm seems to be a solid guy. If I my

24:56 expectation would be that that's the number one guy the Bruins are going to look at if they want

24:59 to trade for somebody from the outside or try to bring somebody in. Is that kind of a guy that's

25:05 a pretty good two way player, good center, you know, can do things offensively and defensively

25:10 is on a good cap number right now. And, you know, seemingly as part of the veteran contingent that

25:16 seems to want out of Calgary. I look at him as the forward aspect of the defenseman that went

25:22 from Arizona to Ottawa. You know, that that that kid, Chikrin, that he, you know, he's got such a

25:32 favorable cap number that you knew that this trade was going to happen overnight and whoever does it

25:36 is going to pay a king's ransom. Yeah, but Chikrin was signed to a longer term, though. Lindholm is

25:43 going into the last year of his deal, I believe. So I think so. But then, OK, so you're going to

25:48 pay a lot and then you're going to risk it or you're going to have sort of agreement, because

25:52 it looks to me like there are a couple of deadline acquisitions in this past season where teams got

25:56 assurances that they were going to be able to negotiate. Yeah. Well, Taylor Hall, like was one

26:01 of those two when the Bruins traded for him. You know, I think the assumption was if things worked

26:06 out, they were going to sign him to an extension after that. Right. And John Sweeney seems to do

26:10 his due diligence with that stuff. So I would assume all that is going to be sort of at least

26:15 put away to a degree before they would make a significant move like that. But, you know,

26:20 they've also, you know, painted themselves into a corner by not having any first or second round

26:24 picks until like twenty twenty six and not having the greatest prospect system right now where the

26:30 top guys they're going to be relying on to come in and help them. Getting back to Bergeron,

26:37 like what are your favorite moments from the time that you watched him? I appreciate the shout out

26:44 to Brad Boyes back in the day. He and Boyes and Marco Sturm were dynamite in those first couple

26:49 of years together when they played on the first. I mean, Bergeron had one of his best offensive

26:54 seasons coming out of that year in Providence. He had over 30 goals, 70 points. I asked I got a

27:00 chance to ask Sturm once what was the difference? No, it was Brad Boyes. I asked what was the

27:06 difference between the hockey that you guys played as a line with Sully and 05, 06 and what

27:14 happened in 06, 07 with Louis, where plus minuses Bergeron had like an aberration of minus that was

27:22 air and at or near the bottom of the league to a point that that it probably eclipses all the

27:30 minuses of his cumulative total of his life in that one season. And Boyes told me that Dave Lewis

27:39 wanted them to all spread out around the rink. Whereas their game was much more late 70s,

27:45 early 80s Bruins hockey where the passes were real short. Actually Montgomery very much coached

27:51 it. It's a short, short, accessible, as Andy Brickley loves to say, makes himself available

27:57 kind of passing outlets. And this was sort of how the Bruins can continue their,

28:02 their kind of like the last play of a football game is always somebody right there on lateral too.

28:07 And, and this was kind of how they played under Sully. They, that one, Louis wanted to try to

28:15 capitalize on the two line pass rule and all of that. And, and it just completely backfired on

28:23 them. They didn't have the, the team chemistry overall to cope with, especially on the defensive

28:28 end. So, no, I mean, when you see the wheels either, cause really Boyes is not, wasn't really

28:36 a fast skater. Bergy, Bergy, Bergy could, Bergy could, he was a strong skater on the four check,

28:42 but, but he wasn't the kind of guy whose speed was going to make up for anything. And as you know,

28:48 so I, they were that, that line got, got chewed up on the Louie cause that was the wrong way to

28:53 play. Yeah. Stern Stern brought the speed, I think on that line when, when they did get going,

28:58 he had pretty good speed, but like in general, I mean, Louis was disaster anyway. Right. We,

29:02 we know that to be the case when he was pulling out basketballs at practice on off days in

29:08 Carolina or wherever they were and having Savard and Chara like shoot baskets instead of working

29:12 on the ice and you know, the all the stuff that was going on in Chara was horrendous that first

29:17 year. And I think it was a lot of guys that were trying to do too much too. Well, I was with Peter

29:21 Shirely said about Zivano, Chara that, that, that year, that first year he was trying to do so much

29:26 to live up to the new role he had that, that when Claude came in, he calmed all that down. And,

29:32 and also, you know, I mean, he had a better team to work with, which allowed him to,

29:37 you know, then they progressed, you know, kept tweaking, tweaking personnel, personnel and,

29:43 and got better as it went. But, you know, there, there's so many instances with, with Bergeron of,

29:50 of, you know, little snapshots of his greatness or times when you knew he was going to come

29:55 through, whether it was, you know, that hat trick in the final regular season game a couple of years

30:00 ago, when he got to 400 career goals, when we weren't sure if he was coming back for another

30:04 year and he still, he managed to get it just in case, obviously he came back for a following year,

30:10 but, you know, you kind of just got that feeling as that game was going on that he's going to get it

30:14 right now that the winter classic in Notre Dame, when he, you know, kind of turned that game with

30:21 a back check that went down to the puck, then the puck goes down the other end and turns into a

30:26 goal. Even other things, you know, the 2013 Stanley cup final, when he played through that game where

30:34 he was basically in a car crash, you know, and, and was, would manage to make it through. Yeah.

30:40 That was a series, a string of injuries. It all started with a late hit by Michael Frohlich.

30:46 Bergeron had given up the puck. He was going toward the West end of the guide. And so it's a

30:51 first or third period, but he, he had given up the puck and he was about 10 feet, I guess,

30:55 on the sideboards and Frohlich came in from like side, sort of behind, sort of beside and caught

31:00 him on a wears, like a second leg, kind of a Trent McClary hit. And, and Bergeron went,

31:04 he just wasn't braced right for it. And he wound up getting his shoulder crunched and on the,

31:11 you know, against the dasher, against the kick plate. And, and now he's trying to protect that

31:16 injury in the opposite corner of the rink and he gets hit by Hossa, you know, and it just keeps

31:21 going and going and going. And it just unraveled on him and the Bruins as they got Hossa back in

31:26 that series and game four, and that was a pivotal game. And but yeah, that was the guts to it that

31:33 he showed, like you say, at that's, that is incredible. You know, and I also think of,

31:40 you know, he's going up against Crosby and in that series before that. And, and, you know,

31:48 and credit to Claude for acknowledging the reality of how close that series was, even though it went

31:53 four games, first words out of his mouth at the podium, that was not a sweep. And, but really

32:00 Tuca was what made that a sweep. And but, but Berge going up against Crosby and, and, and

32:09 taking on really hockey's premier forward and, and, and beating him, I thought was pretty

32:16 impressive. I think of that, I think of, you know, even Taze, you could tell that even though

32:22 they won that 13 series, that winter classic at Notre Dame, that time where Berge scores that goal

32:28 and Taze comes in from the side and gives him a real cross check in the ribs. Yeah. And Berge just

32:32 turns around and looks at him, you know, you could just see that, that there was definitely that

32:39 these guys hated playing against Bergeron. They hated it. It's just drive them crazy.

32:45 Yep. But they respected them because they were all the same kind of players too. You know,

32:49 it was like that small sort of fraternity of Taze, Crosby, Bergeron, guys like that, that are

32:55 very similar players, the highest of competitors, you know, yeah. Kopitar is another one too. You

33:02 know, that, that's, you know, that, that's a lot of the stuff that's going to be missed with him

33:08 along with, you know, some of the great stories of his leadership, you know, like the one I remember

33:14 is Jamel Smith who played three games with the Bruins, like came up on the waivers from

33:19 Dallas stars. They had injuries. They need to bring a guy in, barely played with them.

33:24 But just in that time, Bergeron, you know, picks up on something, you know, not quite being right

33:32 or feeling like something was wrong with him or, you know, he wasn't feeling great. Something was

33:37 going on and he's just started talking to him about it. And it turned into Jamel Smith talking

33:41 to Max Offerberger and, you know, getting some professional people to talk to because, you know,

33:47 mentally he just wasn't feeling good. And that's the kind of leadership that he had that goes above

33:53 and beyond the rah-rah stuff. He was not a rah-rah guy for the most part. He got better at that

33:56 as he was, and not in a, you know, theatrical way, but just in an effective way as he got older,

34:02 just sort of talking, being a leader, public speaking, you know, all that stuff. I think

34:07 he got better at it as he was going on, which is certainly part of leadership. But his genuine

34:11 will, genuine care for people, even a guy that played three games and really wasn't around

34:16 and had a lasting impact on that person's life. I mean, that kind of speaks to who he was

34:21 beyond the ice and beyond, you know, all the accolades and the awards that he won.

34:24 Yeah. I think of that. I think of obviously the game seven shorty near the end of the

34:31 second period in Vancouver. Oh yeah. That's just sensing that opportunity.

34:37 Well, and the audacity of the Canucks biting his finger, right? In game one too.

34:41 Well, yeah. You have your characters in this game and, you know, Mark Recchi certainly

34:49 exploited that situation for all he could. He had the experience to understand that this is

34:55 currency. Oh yeah. Are you kidding me?

35:01 Yeah. You know, it's just, you know, personal experience with Bergie too.

35:06 There was a relationship I was in where I wound up having the closest thing I've ever had to a

35:15 parental role in somebody's life. And it was a five-year-old who I pretty much indoctrinated

35:20 into becoming a Bergeron fanatic. You know, I first explained to her that, you know, Leah,

35:25 this is where, see number 37, he's always in the middle. He's always in the circle.

35:30 And she really became, really got really into it. And that year, and one of the things that

35:37 happened in her elementary or first grade was the teacher asked the children to please write down

35:43 somebody that you would like to meet. And she wrote down Patrice Bergeron. The teacher collects

35:50 the papers and says, who's Patrice Bergeron? And I get it. Everything was Patriots and Red Sox.

35:59 I know that, you know, the freaking state house, you know, puts out a banner in 2008,

36:05 go Celtics, you know, and the Bruins are like, Hey, we're over here. I mean, it was always like

36:12 that, you know, and until the Bruins won, they weren't treated with any fairness by what I like

36:20 to call the three sport media. Well, the culture, you know, once the Patriots got really good,

36:26 once the Red Sox broke through and that happened, and we have a whole generation of people for whom

36:31 those are the two big teams, you know, is it really an uphill climb for the Bruins and the

36:36 Celtics and the Celtics got there first, God bless them. And the Bruins found their way. And Bergeron

36:42 was so central to that. And so, you know, upon, you know, the teacher saying this and her having

36:48 to explain to the teacher, you know, he plays for the Bruins. I wound up talking to Bergeron and

36:55 tell him the story. And he agreed to meet her. That's awesome. Early on in the sequel season,

37:01 the 1112 season, I brought her in now, their relationship, we had broken up by this time.

37:08 So that was terribly awkward. But we followed through on it. And she got to meet birdie and

37:12 do the Facebook photos and all of that stuff. And you know, and it's a great moment in her life to

37:17 look back on and you know, from when she was like five years old, or six years old, said she turned

37:23 six that year. So, you know, it's just but he was that kind of guy who who just, you know,

37:31 was so intuitive to just understand that this is I never I mean, to me, it's like a million years,

37:36 my, my brain to think, go bother this guy, because I grew up a fanatic, you know, I got

37:42 Jerry Cheever's autograph in 1970. Bobby yours that same year. You know, it's, it's, you know,

37:50 so for me, you know, once you're on the come over to the dark side, do what we do, we we're talking

37:56 to these guys all the time, and they become regular people to us. And so first thing we think

38:01 of is, is the, the thrill that other get reminded every once in a while what a thrill it is for

38:08 other people to meet them. And enjoy that kind of vicariously, you know, to see that, you know,

38:13 the joy that some people have, and how nervous they are. You know, and these guys are just trying

38:19 to get through it and be nice, because they generally are, they're the greatest guys ever.

38:23 I play this are awesome. And, you know, so just being around birdie for some of that stuff, and,

38:29 and just doing this one thing, because it wasn't about me, it was very difficult for me to do,

38:33 actually, give me. So, but thanks to Eric Tosi, and, and for helping me with it. And, but birdie,

38:42 you know, he showed up after after practice one day and medicine, the concourse and signed a few

38:48 things and talked and it was, that's him. You know, yep, that is absolutely him. And I bet that

38:54 doesn't surprise me at all, because I, I, all hockey players are good to deal with, right?

39:00 I mean, almost all uniformly. But like, Bergeron and Marchand, especially really seem to understand

39:08 the impact they have on others, and understand the responsibility that goes along with, you know,

39:15 being the people that they are the players that they are sort of role models. Like,

39:19 it was funny to me, I remember the you know, the Bruins do those banner cab, those fan captains,

39:24 or whatever, not the playoff ones, but the little kids that go out on the ice with the players,

39:28 you know, during the starting lineup and the anthems and all that. Yeah, they've been doing

39:32 that the last couple of years. And, you know, I remember, I think this was a couple of years ago,

39:37 I remembered watching it was towards the beginning of the year was one of the first times they'd done

39:40 it. And the kids started skating, you know, sort of when they were getting ready to start the game,

39:45 it looked like the kid didn't quite know what was going on where to go. Oh, yeah,

39:49 go around with the team like that. But you see Bergeron come over and Marchand and both take

39:55 care of the kid, pat him on the head, say, did a great job and kind of showing them where to go.

39:59 They just had the presence of mind to do that just intuitively as you're talking about,

40:03 because they're good people. And they understand not only that that's something that kid needed

40:08 right there, but also that that's a memory that kid's going to have forever. Like he's probably

40:12 going to remember more about that interaction with those two players than anything else that happened

40:16 the whole time he was doing that thing, you know, and I think the interview afterwards.

40:20 And that's what he talked about was, you know, Bergeron and Marchand said hi to me and said,

40:23 great job or whatever, you know, and they get that like they totally understand that. And,

40:29 you know, that kind of leads me into our last sort of topic here. The next captain of the Boston

40:35 Bruins. I really feel like it has to be Brad Marchand. It has to, it absolutely has to,

40:40 you know, I've heard some Charlie McAvoy talk and I love Charlie McAvoy and I do think he's

40:44 captain material. Down the road. But you but you, you have Brad Marchand. He's been the deputy

40:52 captain of this team since Charo retired. Yep. There's our charge since Charo left the Bruins.

40:57 Marchand's been the deputy captain as Bergeron was. And so there is no going forward

41:05 without doing this. This is the best chance the Bruins have to carry on the right way,

41:12 the team culture, the winning legacy, everything about the era. Brad Mayer has Brad Marchand

41:20 written all over it. And he's proven himself. It's not that, well, if you don't do it,

41:26 he's going to be mad. No, nothing to do with that. It's got to do with him being the right guy.

41:31 And this is a gimme. And, and for me, I don't think there's any going forward. The only way

41:38 this could possibly happen is if Brad Marchand was having trouble with, with his injury and his

41:44 comeback and decided on himself that, you know, something we really need to get, give this to

41:50 Charlie or somebody or pasta or something, because we need to, I can't be that guy. I want to be that

41:58 guy, but I can't be, it would have to come from him. Otherwise it's him. I want it to be him.

42:02 I thought it was the Bruins and I didn't want it to be him. I'd be wondering what happened to my

42:05 head, you know? So yeah, it's gotta be Marchand. I think down the road, you know, three, four years

42:13 down the line, Pasternak and McAvoy, one of them will make a fine captain. And I, you know, I think

42:19 those will be the two leaders of this team. The two figureheads, the two faces of the franchise,

42:24 but right now, Brad Marchand, you, you are talking about one of the leaders and one of, you know,

42:30 the deputies for Patrice Bergeron, that was a big vocal leader on this team. You're also talking

42:36 about now the, you know, Milan Lucic coming back, that gives them another one, but Marchand is

42:40 basically the last remnant of that 2011 Stanley cup team. That's actually wanted anything in the

42:46 playoffs, you know, like he's the, he's the guy left that knows how to win has been to the

42:50 mountaintop and knows how to get there. Not only that, you're also talking about a guy that's

42:54 probably going to be in the hall of fame as well. You know, he's, he's going to have the credentials

42:58 for all of those things that, that Patrice Bergeron has as well. I mean, in the shadow of Bergeron,

43:05 it's very easy to overlook how impactful Brad Marchand has been these past several years

43:10 and what that adds up to. And so, you know, to me, there's,

43:16 if you're engaged and you've been following Marchand's career, then you got to understand

43:23 that this guy's the captain of Bruins right now. - A hundred percent. I think, I mean, I think the

43:28 decision's already been made to be honest with you. I'd be surprised if it hasn't. It's just,

43:33 yeah, I don't even think there's an argument to be made, honestly, for anybody else at this point.

43:37 I think McEvoy and Pasternak's day will come, but I'm not, it's not there right now. And I think to

43:42 your point, well said. I think the best way to carry on the torch of Bergeron's legacy and in

43:47 the culture of that Boston Bruins is for 63 to be the next captain of the Boston Bruins for the next

43:53 couple of years. Mick, thank you for walking down memory lane with, about Patrice Bergeron.

43:58 It's a tough week because we all love the guy and, you know, in this sport, we don't root for teams.

44:04 We do root for individuals when we're sports writers and sports reporters. And Bergeron was

44:09 a guy that was eminently easy to root for because he was a humble, caring person, thoughtful, you

44:16 know, just a good human being in addition to being an outstanding role model as a hockey player.

44:21 - He loved the game. He loved the game. You could tell the way he played it, he loved it so much.

44:26 And I remember his year after that concussion, how the players in the summer were trying to get

44:31 him off the ice, you know, because he'd spent so much time out there, you know, but that translated.

44:37 I think that affected the Bruins and I think that that helped the Bruins and that's going to be

44:42 missed. - So thank you, Patrice Bergeron for everything. I want to thank our sponsors really

44:47 quick too. FanDuel Sportsbook, the official exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Network

44:54 and also Factor Meals, America's number one ready to eat meal kit, ready in two minutes. Like I said,

45:00 I ate the lunch today, Indian butter chicken. It was fantastic. So thank you, Factor Meals. Mick,

45:06 thank you very much for being on again to talk about Bergey today.

45:08 Thanks for listening, guys, and we'll see you at the rink.

45:18 (upbeat music)

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