How Patrice Bergeron Came To Decision It Was Time For Retirement

BOSTON — In the end, there was no grand exit for Patrice Bergeron.

The Bruins captain sat in front of more than a dozen cameras and reporters from two countries and answered questions about his retirement — in English and French — for about 45 minutes Wednesday at TD Garden. When it was all over, the 38-year-old thanked everyone within earshot, quietly left the stage, briefly greeted a couple of people and then just disappeared through a Legends club doorway.

There were no tears; in fact, a smiling Bergeron took his seat at the dais and opened by thanking the media for attending. At no point during his chat did he give any impression he was second-guessing his decision to walk away from the sport he loves.

The soft-spoken Bergeron sounded at peace with his decision, even if the process took some time.

“When I signed this past summer (in 2022), it was for one year, (and) I was debating that it may be my last year,” Bergeron said. “So the whole year, I was preparing for that. Over the year, the body, realizing that, you know, it was just kind of time for me to move on. There’s a lot of things that kind of influenced me, but obviously, the main thing is probably the body and spending more time with the family.

“I’ve kind of always told myself that for me, I wanted to play the game at the highest level that I could and felt like I wanted to leave on top of my game.”

Bergeron obviously did that. He just won his sixth Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward. Only five times in his 19-year career did he score more goals than the 27 times he found the back of the net in 2022-23. There is undoubtedly still gas in the tank. However, Bergeron is no longer willing to go through the necessary tune-ups that come with preparing for an NHL season.

“There wasn’t a particular moment, but it was over time that it kind of came to me,” he said. “As the year and summer went on, as I was trying to let the dust settle to see if there was going to be a part of me that was going to want to come back, it was really never the case.

“The preparation and the routine and the workout regimen is important to be on top of your game and making sure you’re doing the right things. That motivation slowed down a little bit this summer, I’m not going to lie. … I was listening to my body and the signs, and it’s almost like it was telling me that you’re not really missing the workouts, you’re not missing — you haven’t been on the ice in a long time — and you haven’t really had the itch to get back. Just all the way throughout, I knew it was time, and I was waiting for any motivation to come back, and I just felt like it was the right time for me to move on. You have to listen to your body eventually.”

As for what’s next, Bergeron still hasn’t made that decision, at least not for the long term. In the meantime, he’ll spend that time at home where his wife and four children — including a newborn — are eager to have him around a little more often.

The hockey world will go on without him, sooner than later, but Bergeron on Wednesday looked and sounded like someone who is more than OK with that.