Sportsnet had one of the Kings/Canadiens games on and out of interest I was watching Carbonneau on the ice and within a few minutes from when I turned it on this goal happened:
I went through all 61 Bergeron games this year and I never saw something like that, like that kind of a lack of awareness. 22 just did a fly-by on Gretzky, which I think was what Carbonneau may have been upset with, but what was Carbonneau doing? He's not looking around at all, recognizing where threats are coming from. He ties up Sandstrom briefly and Sandstrom just steps away to post up for the cross-crease, and then Carbonneau just goes to the slot on top of #27, eyes glued to Gretzky, not even blocking a passing lane by putting his stick on the ice. Then he reacts after Gretzky passes it. Yeah, breakdowns happen, and maybe I just caught him at the worst possible time, but watching Bergeron so much it's insane how aware of everything he is all the time.
No disrespect to the legends, but they simply aren't put under the scrutiny that modern players are when you're evaluating defensive play. There are a lot more defensive systems in place but you still need to be smart defensively and versatile enough to execute on them when you're a center that has heavy lifting to do. This doesn't make older players better or worse as a rule, but it does show that despite all this scrutiny you can lump on someone in this day and age, Bergeron always being at or near the top should be given a lot more credit than what a lot of people usually award to modern players.