Patrice Bergeron has always been the perfect fit in Boston
The dedication manifests in many ways. The most famous example occurred during Boston’s last Stanley Cup final appearance in 2013, when Bergeron tore some rib cartilage in Game 4 and broke a rib in Game 5 before separating his right shoulder and suffering a punctured lung in Game 6 as the Bruins fell to Chicago. Even crazier? “I never got a phone call,” says agent Kent Hughes, who only learned the true extent of his client’s injuries once Bergeron emerged from the home locker room at TD Garden after the Blackhawks clinched and said, far too matter-of-factly for the circumstances, “I’ve got to go to the hospital.”
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In 2013, Bergeron and Hughes entered contract negotiations with the Bruins for what became an eight-year, max-term extension. At the time Hughes projected that Bergeron could fetch upwards of $9 million on the open market, comparing him to fellow two-way dynamos Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, both of whom had recently re-signed with Anaheim for annual cap hits above $8 million. “And he said, ‘We’ll never win at that number,’” Hughes recalls. “I said, ‘If you take this, you don’t stop other people from taking more, you know that, right?’
“He said, ‘I know. I can’t control that, I can just do my part.’”
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The couple also recently built a new house, in which Bergeron designed a basement big enough to accommodate a live-in guest. Once the kids are a little older, he dreams of hosting a young Bruins player like Lapointe did for him, paying it forward helping the new guy learn how to make Boston home.
