Bergeron Exits Boston Bruins Game After First Period

The Boston Bruins decided to go with a close-to-full lineup for the 82^nd game of the regular season after clinching everything that they possibly could during the regular season. The lineup included 37-year-old captain Patrice Bergeron as well as Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, but Bergeron didn’t play very much as he exited the game after the first period at the Bell Centre with what the B’s termed an “upper body injury, precautionary.”

UPDATE: Patrice Bergeron (upper-body, precautionary) will not return to tonight's game.

— p – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 14, 2023

Bergeron finished with eight shifts and 5:36 of ice time that included a plus-1 rating and 8-of-9 faceoff wins, but didn’t factor in either of Boston’s first two goals scored by Trent Frederic and Jake DeBrusk. The hope is obviously that it’s nothing serious with Bergeron as the Bruins are similarly stating about Linus Ullmark after he exited Tuesday night’s win over the Washington Capitals with a lower body injury as well.

Bergeron was asked about the full complement of Boston Bruins players – minus David Krejci (lower body) as well as Ullmark and Tomas Nosek – playing on Thursday night in Montreal ahead of the game and indicated that the B’s players wanted to stay in the game flow after many were given games off in the last couple of weeks leading up to next week’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

“We’ve talked about it. I talked to Monty about it a few weeks ago and in the last few weeks throughout I think we’ve done that with resting guys and healing up some of the bumps and bruises of the season,” said Bergeron. “But as we got closer to the playoffs, we thought maybe it was a good idea to play some games. Get involved in some of those because it’s a quick turnaround [for the playoffs] and you want to stay sharp.

“You also want to work on things and get better and it also forces us to stay in our process like we have all season, and our details. We’re in the moment and worried about tonight’s game rather than thinking about next week.”

Bergeron was playing in front of a large group of friends and family at the Bell Centre in what very likely could be his last NHL game in his home province of Quebec.

But there’s no doubting that the Boston Bruins will be criticized roundly if Bergeron, or anybody else for that matter, comes down with any kind of injury or nagging issue just prior to the Stanley Cup playoffs as a result of Boston deciding to go with so many of their regulars in a meaningless final game of the regular season.