Patrice Bergeron, who took a shot off his hand early in the second period, left the game and did not return.
Following the game, head coach Claude Julien informed the media that Bergeron would not travel to Ottawa with his team for Tuesday night’s Northeast Division tilt with the Senators. Instead, the team’s leading scorer is headed back to Boston for further evaluation from the team doctors.
“He’s going back [Tuesday] morning, so he’ll be reevaluated,” a frustrated Julien said. “Obviously it’s a shot that he caught on the hand and we’ll know more, but he’s definitely not coming to Ottawa.”
Bergeron has had a sensational season thus far, amassing 11 goals and 20 assists for 31 points. He has been one of the best two-way forwards in the league, playing plenty of minutes on both the power play and penalty kill. His versatility impressed Hockey Canada GM Steve Yzerman enough that the Hall of Famer recently named him to the Canadian Olympic squad, despite the fact that Bergeron had not been invited to the Olympic orientation camp over the summer.
“He just impressed me the more I watched him,” Yzerman told the media after announcing the Team Canada roster on Dec. 30. “He can play in all situations and will be a very valuable player for our team.”
As Julien explained on Monday night and has said many times before, Bergeron has been the team MVP to this point in the season. If this injury keeps him out for an extended period of time, the Bruins will miss him tremendously.
“If he’s not back, we’ve lost our best player — that sums it up right there,” said Julien.
