Is it fair to criticize Bergeron for playing Game 82 in Montreal?
Patrice Bergeron’s absence will extend through Games 3 and 4 of the Bruins’ first-round series against the Panthers, as he did not travel with the team to Florida.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told reporters on Friday that he believes it is “likely” Bergeron will able to return for Game 5 back in Boston.
With it now clear that Bergeron is missing time because of an injury and not the illness that he was battling last weekend, there has understandably been some criticism of the decision to play Bergeron in last Thursday’s regular-season finale in Montreal.
Bergeron left that game in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. His exit was termed “precautionary” at the time, but obviously the injury turned out to be more serious than that initial diagnosis suggested.
On Friday, Montgomery explained why he doesn’t regret playing Bergeron in that game.
“Our hindsight is we don’t have any reservations about what we did, because we laid it out with where we were in the regular season with four weeks to play,” Montgomery said. “We talked to sports science, and then Sweens [general manager Don Sweeney] and I talked about if we have a chance to rest people, we’re gonna rest them. And then we consulted with Bergy, and I think he missed five games (author’s note: it was actually four).
“We wanted -- I wanted and Bergy wanted -- the last two games to ramp up, to get in a rhythm for the playoffs. Life happens. Unfortunately, he tweaked something in that last game. Even with hindsight, we would still do it exactly the same way. That’s how it’s easy to move forward, when you have no regret with what you did because it was a well-thought-out plan.”
That lines up with what we heard from Montgomery and others for weeks down the stretch. The Bruins were going to build in rest for a number of their veterans and key players, but that rest was going to be spread out over several weeks.
The plan all along -- decided weeks in advance -- was for everyone other than already-injured players to play the final two games in an effort to ramp up to Game 1 and not have guys be rusty. The Bruins had looked at what other teams in their situation had done and came to the conclusion that was the best approach for them.
Obviously, it’s easy now to second-guess that plan because Bergeron got hurt in that game. But it wasn’t a plan made at the last minute or made simply for sentimental reasons. There was real thought, discussion and advance planning that went into it.
Montgomery was also asked if there was any truth to a report that Bergeron’s father is battling cancer and that Bergeron wanted to play in Montreal because his parents would be there. Montgomery declined to confirm or deny that, saying, “That’s not for me to discuss.”
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