There are few certainties in life anymore (especially in 2021) but the second that future Hall of Famer Zdeno Chara signed with the Washington Capitals last week, most Bruins fans had the same reaction to what the move meant for Boston in the near future when it came to its leadership core. Big Zee had been the Bruins' captain for all of his 14 years here but naturally, there was a logical choice to be the 20th captain of the B's: center Patrice Bergeron. Today, a few days into its brief training camp, the club finally confirmed what we all knew was going to happen: Bergy is the new captain of the team while left wing Brad Marchand and center David Krejci were appointed as the alternate captains.
Much like Chara before him, Bergeron needs no introduction since he's been here for so long (since 2003!). This is the only NHL home that he has known and we've all been lucky enough to see the 18-year-old kid from Quebec grow into a married father of three while also becoming one of the top two-way forwards (check the four Selke Awards) in the world. He won a Stanley Cup in 2011 and has been with the team for two other trips to the Stanley Cup Final in 2013 vs. Chicago and 2019 against St. Louis. From covering the Bruins for the past eight seasons, I'd love to tell you that Bergeron isn't as perfect (and I hate that word) as you'd like to believe but he really is annoyingly nice, classy and good at everything in the universe.
There are captains in every sport but for whatever reason (the physicality of it plus the sheer amount of games?), the role of captain in hockey feels more important than in any other sport. Yes, it's notable in football too but each football team has a bunch of captains that come from each part of the team-offense, defense and special teams. Alternate captains are basically vice presidents, a goofy title that really means nothing other than it's ceremonious. The captain is the face of the hockey team both on and off the ice, always is expected to talk to the media after a game win or lose (lucky him!), gets to lift any team trophy first and is the most respected voice in the dressing room.
In an Original Six franchise like the B's, the history is always incredible when something notable like this happens. Boston has appointed captains for nearly 100 years and now Bergeron joins such Bruins legends like Ray Bourque, Rick Middleton, Terry O'Reilly, John Bucyk and Milt Schmidt to name a few. There is no doubt that Bergy will be the captain for the rest of his career in Boston which hopefully is the only NHL club that he ever plays for. There really weren't any other legitimate options for captain: Marchand is a great player and hilarious but not a true leader while Krejci is a solid veteran but pretty quiet so if there was even an actual vote for this position, it was probably a landslide in Patrice's favor.
By the way, the abbreviated 56-game NHL regular season begins in less than a week-next Wednesday-with Boston opening up on a three-game road trip to New Jersey on Thursday (7, NESN) and Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) before going to the Islanders on Monday (5, NBCSN). Where else would you want to be in mid-January than North Jersey and Long Island? Out of the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles, it promises to be a bizarre year and I hadn't mentioned that the Bruins are in a new temporary division designed to limit travel during the pandemic. For this season, they are in the same division as the Capitals, Sabres, Islanders, Devils, Rangers, Flyers and Penguins. Gone from their old Atlantic Division schedule are the Canadian teams (Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa) along with Detroit and the teams from Florida (Panthers and Lightning). Get used to seeing the divisional teams way too often since those are the only opponents the Bruins will face before the playoffs. Haha that is not confusing at all, got it?
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