There was no questioning Patrice Bergeron‘s toughness before the Stanley Cup playoffs began, but the Bruins forward left no doubt with what he went through this postseason.
Bergeron played through a daunting list of injuries all the way through the Stanley Cup Final, as the center was dealing with a rib injury that included a cartilage tear, a punctured lung and a separated shoulder he suffered in Game 6 of the Cup Final. The injuries landed Bergeron in a Chicago hospital following Game 5, and he went to a Boston hospital after the Final concluded with the Bruins’ Game 6 loss.
In typical Bergeron fashion, however, he downplayed the injuries and the sacrifices he made to play through them. Bergeron, who missed the team’s break-up day last week (because he was in the hospital), met weith the media Tuesday in the B’s dressing room at TD Garden.
“I don’t know if there’s pride,” Bergeron told reporters. “Some people would say it’s stupid, but it just goes with the way it is. I’m just … you don’t just think at that point. You’re just trying to help the team, you try to do whatever it takes. You obviously don’t want to put your health in danger. We had the conversations with the doctors, and you never know what’s going to happen in the games, so it’s always a risk. At the same time, it’s our passion, it’s what you want to do. You want to definitely win, that’s the most important thing. At that stage, at that point, there’s no regrets on my part.
“I don’t know if there’s necessarily pride. I just did whatever any of my other teammates would have done. There’s other guys that have done it. Soupy [Gregory Campbell] is one example this year, and Rex [Mark Recchi] was the perfect example as well. So that’s it. I did whatever I could’ve done to help my team and try to be there for our biggest game of the year.”
Despite the mounting injuries — which include the shoulder separation in the first period — Bergeron still played 17:45 for the Bruins in the Game 6 loss to Chicago.
