Trap Jesus
Registered User
- Feb 13, 2012
- 28,686
- 13,456
He should never have been on top of Schneider to begin with, what purpose is he serving going to that space? There's definitely an aspect of him playing with blinders on there. And I'm not judging him on the play, I'm just commenting on going through all of Bergeron's shifts this year and not noting something like that and turning it on and seeing that immediately. Maybe it's just a random event that never happened again.Not seeing this "lack of awareness" by Carbonneau that you claim is on that video highlight. He's doing exactly what he should be there. Boxing out Sandstrom from heading to the front, then trying to close off the middle after the box breaks down because both defensemen, particularly Desjardins, start chasing. He can't get his stick down to block the pass because it gets lifted by Schneider, his own player. Regardless, your basing judgement on a player from ONE play, where the greatest offensive player of all time makes a beautiful backhand saucer pass for the assist. It's a great play by the Great One.
I'm not going to doubt your religious viewing of Bergeron, and I'm not at all questioning how great a defensive forward he is, but are you seriously going to argue that Bergeron NEVER makes a mistake in defensive zone coverage? Well, OK.
Bergeron makes mistakes with the puck and gets beat, and will whiff on things, but in terms of awareness he's as close to flawless as you're going to get. He has to be to be as effective as he is. His skating is really lacking compared to a lot of the best defensive players and his defensive stick is good, but not exactly elite. He definitely doesn't have Datsyuk or even Stone-like takeaway ability. When I watched Eriksson on the Bruins his defensive stick was better as well IMO. He's strong, but isn't going to be the absolute best in puck battles, especially compared to those bigger defensive forwards like Couturier. His effort level is unquestioned, but he doesn't always display it by non-stop hustle and moving his feet, he just always has his head on a swivel and a ridiculous sense of awareness to know where to be. He's the closest thing you'll get to a computer on skates with his play away from the puck.
This is a compilation we put together from this year. It's just a portion of what was collected overall.