Patrice Bergeron, whose biography will be described below, is one of the best forwards of the NHL defense plan of the last ten years. As part of the Canadian national team, he became the world champion and Olympic hockey champion, won the Stanley Cup, being part of the Boston Bruins. The statistics of Patrice Bergeron on penalty minutes for the season are quite impressive, since he always goes violently into a power struggle, sometimes passing over the edge of a foul.
Junior life
Quebec has become the homeland of many famous hockey players, including the current central striker, the Boston Bruins. Patrice Bergeron was born in the town of L'Aciennes-Loretta in 1985, like all Canadian boys spent all his free time on hockey boxes.
The tough, unyielding sturdy man progressed rapidly and began to achieve significant results. In 2001, he made his debut in the Quebec Junior Hockey League, playing four matches for the Akadi Bathurst Titan team.
Already in the next season, the striker became one of the main stars of his youth league, gaining 73 points in seventy matches. At the same time, he remained out of the spotlight of the coaches of the junior hockey teams of Canada, who were skeptical about the capabilities of Patrice.
Transition to the NHL
The talent of a native of Quebec was appreciated in the NHL, and in 2003 the Boston Bruins club selected Patrice Bergeron in a draft under a fairly high forty-fifth number. He conscientiously used that little playing time, which he was trusted and managed to score 39 points in a season, scoring 16 goals and distributing 23 assists.
From the very beginning, it has established itself as a tough and unyielding forward, who goes to the end of the fight and does not disdain the rough work of taking the opponent’s pucks and playing defensively. In doing so, he earned himself a challenge to the NHL All-Star Game, where he played for the team of the best newcomers to the league.
The following season, the Boston Bruins management decided to send a promising newcomer to their farm club so that he could get regular playing practice while playing in the AHL. Here he was one of the leaders in terms of performance, gaining 61 points.
An excellent game for the Providence Bruins, Patrice Bergeron earned the right to return to the NHL. His second season at Boston was the best in his career. He scored 31 goals and handed out 42 assists, losing just 14 points to season leader Sidney Crosby.
A young Quebec native pushed all his competitors with his elbows and became the key center forward of his team.
Injuries
Handing out programs and scoring goals, Patrice Bergeron could not avoid injuries in his long career. In October 2007, he flew with great force into the side of the site, having received a concussion, a broken nose and limbs. He spent several months in the hospital, after which he tried to return to the ice.
However, the player was chased by headaches and was disturbed by a broken arm, because of which he could not act in full force. The Boston Bruins coach gave his ward a year of rehabilitation leave, and he began to restore his health.
The rehabilitation process after the injury lasted a long and painful, only by the summer of Patrice Bergeron could begin to engage in an individual program, and by September to begin training in the Boston.
Return
In October 2008, the Canadian played his first match after returning to the ice, scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens. Two months later, in a match against Carolina, he collapsed on the ice after a collision with a player rivals and could not get up.
Fans of Boston in desperation decided that a relapse of the previous injury occurred, but the iron Patrice returned to the ice after several days in the hospital.
Bergeron did not show such performance indicators as in his second season at Boston, but he continued to conscientiously score goals and distribute transfers, and in addition, he faithfully helped the team in defending their own goal.
Individual and team awards
He performed the last task so well that for four times in his career he received the individual Selke Trophy prize, awarded to the striker, who showed himself best in defense. Prior to Patrice, such an achievement was achieved only by the legendary Canadian hockey player Bob Gainey, included in the NHL Hall of Fame.
The forward was not left without team awards, becoming in 2011 the Stanley Cup holder in the Boston Bruins. Moreover, the goal was won by the striker against the goal of Vancouver in the final match of the series.
Prior to this, Patrice Bergeron has already managed several times to successfully play for the Canadian national team at major world tournaments. In 2004, he became the world champion, playing for the first time for the national team, and he played for the main team before he was called up to the youth squad.
In 2010, Patrice Bergeron won the Olympic Games, so in 2011, after the victory of Boston in the NHL, the Canadian became a member of the Triple Golden Club. Hockey players who have won all the major tournaments - the Stanley Cup, the World Cup and the Olympics - are credited here.