Patrice Bergeron’s status remains unclear as Bruins travel to Florida for Games 3 and 4
"He's in real good spirits mentally and physically. Just wishes he could be on the ice with us right now."
Following a lopsided Game 2 defeat on home ice Wednesday, the Bruins will make the trek down to Florida to continue their first-round series against the Panthers.
It remains to be seen if their captain will join them for the flight down to the Sunshine State.
Speaking on Thursday morning, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery acknowledged that the team has yet to hear word if Patrice Bergeron will travel with the group later this afternoon.
Bergeron missed Boston’s first two playoff matchups against the Panthers due to a nagging upper-body injury, along with a bout of illness.
“He skated just now,” Montgomery said of Bergeron’s status. “So that’s obviously a real positive sign. But I haven’t talked to medical or athletic trainers about where he’s at as far as coming with us on the trip or not.”
Thursday marks the second straight day that Bergeron has skated at Warrior Ice Arena, an encouraging sign for the 37-year-old forward.
Still, the first-line center has not participated in a full-team practice since leaving Boston’s regular-season finale against Montreal on April 13 with that upper-body issue. At the time, the Bruins said Bergeron’s early exit was “precautionary.”
But if Bergeron doesn’t travel with the team on Thursday, there stands a chance that the future Hall of Famer will be out of commission for the first four games of this first-round series.
Back-breaking turnovers and poor breakouts doomed Boston in its 6-3 defeat in Game 2. But Bergeron’s two-way capabilities, proficiency at the faceoff dot and on-ice leadership has been sorely missed in a series where Florida has controlled significant stretches of play.
Even though Bergeron’s absence has been evident, Montgomery acknowledged that Boston’s leader has kept his spirits up despite this extended setback.
“This is a human being that doesn’t get rattled,” Montgomery said of Bergeron. “He’s holding up great. He carries himself with — like his confidence, it gives energy to everybody else, that everything’s OK. You know what I mean?
“That’s just the way he carries himself on good days, bad days, you wouldn’t know it. So he’s in real good spirits mentally and physically. Just wishes he could be on the ice with us right now.”
If Bergeron is unavailable for Game 3 or even longer, the Bruins will likely turn to Pavel Zacha and David Krejci as their top-six pivot once again. But Montgomery might need to reshuffle the personnel around both centers, especially Krejci.
Despite his track record in the postseason, Krejci has struggled to find his game against Florida, even with two talented wingers in David Pastrnak and Tyler Bertuzzi stapled to his line.
In Game 2, the Panthers generated four high-danger scoring chances and outshot Boston, 9-2, in the Bertuzzi-Krejci-Pastrnak line’s 8:01 of 5v5 ice time together.
The Bruins have plenty to improve upon ahead of Friday’s matchup at FLA Live Arena. Even if Bergeron is not given the green light, Boston has the means to get back in the win column with cleaner puck movement and a commitment to generating shots from inside ice.
“Right now, I’m excited about where we’re gonna go right now,” Montgomery said of his team. “Like, we lose last night and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, the sky is falling. We’re not going to heaven, we’re going to hell.’ And to me, it’s like, here we’ve got an opportunity to get better.'”
“Playoffs aren’t easy. It’s not easy. But you become so much better. Your resolve, your resiliency — this is where you get tested. This is where I feel we have the right people in our dressing room to do that.”
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