Earlier this week or late last week, or was it like years ago at this point…we bemoaned the utter denial of the PHWA not awarding Patrice Bergeron the Selke as best DEFENSIVE forward because he got had 10 points less than Aleksander Barkov. Our perfect captain had the opportunity to take the lead for most times winning that trophy but was foiled by stupid writers. Well, Bergy just happened to win an award with which writers have no involvement.
Annually, Mark Messier asks teams to submit their candidate for the Mark Messier Leadership Award, which is given to the player who shows leadership on the ice as well as off the ice, working within the community to grow the game of hockey. From those suggestions, he selects the winner himself. Of the 31 candidates, Patrice Bergeron emerged atop the field to take home the award.
“It’s a huge honor,” the Bruins captain said. “Obviously there’s more than just X’s and O’s and playing the game of hockey. It’s about the community and what impact you can bring to people and obviously to your team, but also beyond that and to grow the game of hockey.”
Last season after the murder of George Floyd, Patrice donated to causes like the NAACP Boston and a similar cultural center in Quebec while stating that he was doing what he could to learn how to take hate and racism out of the game and the community.
Patrice also has other initiatives like Patrice’s Pals, in which he invites children fighting illnesses to watch a game in his suite as well as spending time with them afterwards. Patrice also spends time visiting children in hospital as well as raising money for children’s hospitals with his Pucks and Paddles fundraiser. In the community, he has also opened up the Willie O’Ree ball hockey rink in Boston.
Patrice doesn’t like to hog the spotlight or take all the credit, rather pulling some of his teammates in there with him.
“I’m accepting this award on behalf of our entire team and organization,” Bergeron said. “Personally I’ve always believed in leading by committee and letting others grow into leaders of their own, so I want to especially thank Brad [Marchand] and David [Pastrnak] and the rest of our leadership group for all that they’ve done to help make the Bruins such a special team to play for.”
While he will never take credit it for it, he has personally shaped those two players he named both on and off the ice.
Don’t ever change, Patrice.
Don’t know who the other candidates were, but Bergeron is a pretty archetypical leader – lead by example, help out the newbs rather than just hazing them, be humble & spread the accolades around. Glad to see Bergy getting some respect in the awards category.
With the hockey media it’s this catch-22 situation where everyone understands he’s really good, so they don’t feel the need to point it out, but at the same time claim to be tired of talking about him. Meanwhile, the other players rave about the guy.
Just watching the player that Marchand has become tells us a lot about Bergeron’s leadership ability. He may not have taken the rat out of Marchy, but Marchand got 9th in the Selke voting for the 2nd year in a row as a wing. That didn’t arise out of nowhere.
Just watching the player that Marchand has become tells us a lot about Bergeron’s leadership ability. He may not have taken the rat out of Marchy, but Marchand got 9th in the Selke voting for the 2nd year in a row as a wing. That didn’t arise out of nowhere.
Well said, sir.
We talk about this all the time on BoT. He’s been a tremendous influence on Marchy being a better player, a better person, and getting some of the more troubling elements out of his game. He’s hit Marchy before for doing dumb things. Marchy and Bergy are BFF.
Morning all. Angry Bird was Pretty Chill Bird last night until Nugget decided to sit in the window. Then it was a squawk fest between the two of them.
Angry bird. …. Watch your step!
Morning folks,
We’re lucky to have Bergy. Hopefully he sticks around a while yet.
Was up early this morning as Leah has a school trip to a local theme park. She was very excited.
I made some elderflower cordial yesterday using blossom from our tree in the garden. It’s a bit on the sweet side for my taste, but I did use it to revive a tired bumblebee this morning!
Elder flowers are about ready to open here! I know you can make a fizzy drink with it. I like the flowers in pancake batter! No stems, I comb them off the umbral and fold them in at the last minute. I’ll be harvesting some this weekend. How do you make your cordial?
Boil up the clumps of flowers with sliced lemon, water and (optional) citric acid (if you can get some – I couldn’t). Then leave it to brew for a few hours, add a bunch of sugar and boil it up again.
That’s pretty much it! I think the lack of citric acid is why my batch ended up so sweet. I might try putting some extra lemon juice in.
I like the idea of using them in pancakes. The flowers smell gorgeous – although there are quite a lot of bugs in our tree, so I wouldn’t want to use them without boiling first!
That sounds delicious!
Good morning!!
Leave it to Messier to straighten things out. Now there was a leader!. I think we all know what Bergy brings to the table. …. I hate to bring it up, but French Canadian players have always faced racism in hockey. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a factor in the voting.
Beautiful day here, even if a cool start (46°f). Heading for 75 and sunny! Jo comes up tonight. She’s taking Friday off!! Woo hoo!
That’s interesting – I didn’t know that. I think I read somewhere that Bergy didn’t know much English when he first moved to America.
Have yourselves a great weekend!
I recall his accent being quite thick when he was a rookie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er3QOCgxndw
Oh wow, he looks and sounds totally different!
We’ll just ignore his frosted hair days. We all have our missteps.
Everyone has to try to be blonde at least once.
He looks totally different when he speaks in his native language.
There’s a pretty good movie about Henri Richard (The Rocket,2005). It tells all about it. At least, I think it was that movie. Native American players had similar struggles.
Yay and hi to Jo! Enjoy the weekend! It’s boatercross, right?