Patrice Bergeron

Patrice Bergeron (born Patrice Bergeron-Cleary on July 24, 1985) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain playing for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Patrice played junior with the Acadie–Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for one full season before being selected 45th overall by the Bruins in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He made the immediate jump from junior to the NHL after his draft and joined the Bruins in 2003–04.

Internationally, Patrice competes for Team Canada and has won gold medals at the 2004 World Championships, 2005 World Junior Championships and 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He is the most recent member of the Triple Gold Club after he won the Stanley Cup with Boston on June 15, 2011.

Patrice scored two goals including the Stanley Cup winning goal at 14:37 of the first period of Game 7 at Vancouver. He is considered to be one of the premier two-way forwards in the game today.

Minor Hockey Career
Patrice grew up in his hometown of L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec and was mostly an A and AA player throughout his minor hockey days.

He was drafted in the 5th round of the 2001 QMJHL Draft out of AAA Bantam hockey with the Sainte-Foy Gouverneurs. The following year, Patrice played A hockey for the Séminaire St-François Blizzard before reporting to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QMJHL.

NHL Career
Patrice was drafted in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins 45th overall. During his rookie season, Bergeron was selected for the NHL YoungStars Game in Minnesota as part of the 2004 All-Star weekend.

He finished his rookie season with 39 points in 71 games. Due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Patrice played for Boston's minor league affiliate, the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League (AHL); he tallied 61 points in 68 games.

As the NHL resumed the following season, Patrice led the Bruins with a career-high 31 goals and 73 points. He played the majority of the season with linemates Brad Boyes and newcomer Marco Sturm, who had been acquired in a trade that sent captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks in November of 2005.

The Bruins general manager at the time, Mike O'Connell, recalled in a June 2011 interview that the organization had made a decision to build the team around Patrice instead of Thornton, preferring the former's on- and off-ice character. At the end of the year, Patrice was selected by the Bruins to receive the team's 7th Player Award as the player most deemed to have exceeded expectations.

Playing under a defensive system employed by new head coach Dave Lewis, Patrice recorded his second consecutive 70-point campaign in 2006–07 with 22 goals and 48 assists. He was hampered the majority of the season by a nagging shoulder injury.

After recording 3 goals and 4 assists in the first 10 games of the 2007–08 season, Patrice suffered a season-ending head injury during a game on October 27, 2007. He was checked from behind by Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Randy Jones, Patrice hit his head on the end-boards, knocking him unconscious.

Patrice laid motionless on the ice for several minutes before being wheeled off on a stretcher and taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken nose and a grade-three concussion. Jones received a two-game suspension from the NHL.

On November 8, 2007, Patrice made his first public statements regarding the injury on November 8, saying that he would not take any legal action and that Jones had tried to contact him to apologize.

On January 19, 2008, the Boston Globe reported that Patrice had been sent on a vacation by Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli and that he would likely sit out for the remainder of the season as his recovery had regressed.

In March of 2008, Patrice started preliminary on-ice practice with Bruins goaltender Manny Fernandez, who was himself recovering from knee surgery. He steadily progressed into full-contact practices in early-April, aiming for a playoff return against the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round; he was held back by team doctors.

In June 2008, Patrice was reported as being symptom-free during off-season training. He participated in the Bruins' summer development camp (typically for Bruins prospects) with Fernandez before joining the Bruins' main training camp.

On September 22, 2008, Patrice returned to action with the Bruins for the team's pre-season opening game on against the Montreal Canadiens, an 8–3 victory played in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

After the 2008–09 season began, Patrice scored his first goal since his concussion on October 23, 2008, in a 4-2 home game loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Two months later, in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on December 20, 2008, Patrice collided with opposing defenceman, and future Bruin Dennis Seidenberg, suffering another concussion. He lay face down on the ice while being attended to by team trainers and eventually left the ice under his own power.

Patrice was released from the hospital the day after the collision and placed on injured reserve. (Seidenberg and Bergeron later became teammates on the Bruins after a trade for Byron Bitz to the Florida Panthers in 2010 to get Seidenberg.)

Patrice returned after being sidelined for a month and completed the season with 39 points in 64 games. In the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, he recorded his first career fighting major in a scrap with Montreal's Josh Gorges.

In 2009–10, Patrick scored 52 points while playing on a line with winger Mark Recchi. During the 2010 playoffs, he scored 4 goals and added 7 assists for 11 points in 14 games.

The following season, Patrice scored his first career NHL hat trick in a Bruins victory over the Ottawa Senators on January 11, 2011. He was named the NHL's first star of the month and was twice named first star of the week in January of 2011.

Patrice has been in two fights in his entire NHL career. On April 18, 2009 in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals, Josh Gorges reached out and hit Patrice in the jaw. Patrice retaliated by pummeling Gorges with two huge left punches.

This was a seen as a huge motivator for the series. The second came on June 1, 2013 in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He and Evgeni Malkin began squaring off at center ice leading to Malkin knocking off Patrice's helmet before they both threw off their gloves to fight. The two continued to throw blows even while referees attempted to separate them.

On May 6, 2011, Patrice was once again concussed after a hit from Claude Giroux in game 4 of the second round in the 2011 playoffs. It is believed to be a mild concussion that kept him out of the beginning of the 3rd round of the playoffs.

On June 1, 2011 with the Boston Bruins, Alex Burrows allegedly bit Patrice's finger. No penalty was called and the league did not fine or suspend Burrows because the alleged bite was not supported by any evidence except video of Burrows biting Patrice's glove while his hand was still inside it and bite marks on his finger.

On June 15, 2011, Patrice became the 26th member of Triple Gold Club with the Bruins when they won the Stanley Cup. He scored two goals in Game 7 of the series, including the game (and series) winner. On the Stanley Cup, he is listed by his birth name, Patrice Bergeron-Cleary.

After the close of the 2012 NHL playoffs, even with the Bruins team eliminated in the first round by the Washington Capitals, Patrice's constant defensive efforts on the ice earned him the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward for the entire 2011–12 NHL season.

After finishing 2nd in Selke Trophy voting for the shortened 2013 season, Patrice turned in a heroic playoff performance which included the tying and game winning goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of Round 1 and the OT winner in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Patrice also became renowned in the hockey world for displaying his toughness when in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals, he played through a punctured lung, separated shoulder and a broken nose.

On July 12, 2013, the Bruins re-signed Patrice to an eight-year contract extension worth $52,000,000 ($6,500,000 per year). On December 21, 2013, Patrice fought for the first time in the regular season in his career against Tyler Myers of the Buffalo Sabres.

International Play
Following his rookie season in the NHL, Patrice was selected to play for Team Canada at the 2004 World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. He notched one goal in his international debut and won his first gold medal with Canada. The following year, Patrice was chosen to the Canadian national junior team for the 2005 World Junior Championships in North Dakota.

Patrice was lent to the team from the Providence Bruins of the AHL, where he was playing due to the NHL lockout. He was eligible for the World Juniors the previous year, as well, but he was not lent to the national team because he was playing in the NHL.

Patrice finished the tournament with five goals and eight assists totalling 13 points over six games, while playing on a line with Sidney Crosby and Corey Perry.

Patrice scored a goal in Canada's 6–1 gold medal victory over Russia. Bergeron finished the tournament as the leading scorer to earn MVP and All-Star team honours. By helping Canada win gold at the tournament, he became the first player to win a men's gold medal before winning at the junior level.

Patrice made his second appearance at the World Championships in 2006 and was reunited on a line with World Junior teammate Sidney Crosby to whom he finished second in tournament scoring with 14 points.

Patrice was once again invited to play for Canada in the 2007 World Championships. He declined, citing that he wanted to recover from injuries suffered during the NHL season.

On December 30, 2009, Patrice was selected to play for Team Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He was the only player selected who did not receive an invitation to the selection camp earlier in the summer.

Many commentators predicted Patrice would play on a line with Crosby due to his previous experience with him at the World Juniors and World Championships but he ended up as the 13th forward due to a groin injury obtained in Canada's first game. He played primarily on the penalty kill and in defensive-zone faceoffs.

During the 2012-13 NHL Lockout, Patrice competed for Canada at the 2013 Spengler Cup, along with teammate at the time Tyler Seguin. Canada took gold in the event, and Bergeron scored the first goal in the first minute of a 7-2 Canada rout over HC Davos, and added three assists.

Awards & Achievements

 * 2003–04: Played in the YoungStars Game (NHL)
 * 2004 IIHF World Ice Hockey Championships: World Ice Hockey gold
 * 2005 IIHF World U20 Championships: World Ice Hockey gold, MVP and All-Star Team
 * 2010 Winter Olympics: Olympic gold
 * 2010–11: Won Stanley Cup with Boston Bruins (he became 26th member of the Triple Gold Club)
 * 2011-12: Won NHL Plus-Minus Award
 * 2011-12: Won Frank J. Selke Trophy
 * 2012 Spengler Cup: Won with Team Canada
 * 2012–13: Won King Clancy Memorial Trophy