Patrice Bergeron (groin) has been skating on his own for about two weeks now, but until Monday, he had not participated in a formal practice with his teammates at training camp. That’s why, even though he was wearing a maroon non-contact jersey, the sight of the Bruins alternate captain and top center on the ice felt great for everyone in attendance.
“Felt good, it was great to be back with the group and starting to get the rhythm back slowly,” Bergeron told the media after practice Monday. “That’s still part of the program…get on the ice and start to get a feel of how I’m feeling with going full speed with the rest of the group, and obviously getting the rhythm and my hands back. Good first day, happy with how I felt, and everything is going according to plan.”
Bergeron has been doing plenty of on-ice training with skills coach Kim Brandvold for the first three days of on-ice sessions, and with no practice on Tuesday, all involved felt it was a good opportunity to get Bergeron some reps with his teammates.
“I know tomorrow is off for me and everyone else, so that was the whole point was for me to have a good skate today and take [Tuesday] off and make sure I felt good on Wednesday and go from there,” said the 34-year-old Bergeron who had a career-high in points last season with 79 in 65 games.
Bergeron expects to throw on regular jersey and partake in contact drills when practice resumes Wednesday.
“I’m not sure if I’m keeping that jersey on for the rest of the week, but there’s a good chance, probably, that it’s going to stay on for a little bit and slowly ramp things up,” he said.
Ramping up has been Bergeron’s and the team’s approach since he got back into town a few weeks ago and that will be the plan going forward as Bergeron finds his groove.
“We’ll go as Bergy goes, as he says he goes,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “If he says he feels good then wants to wear a white jersey on Wednesday, he does. If he wants to wear the maroon one, that’s fine. I’m not worried about him, he’ll kind of go at his own pace. When he’s ready to go full go, we’ll integrate him.
“I don’t know when he’ll get in a game. I highly doubt any of our vets who have been around a little bit will play this week. I just think that we have to be careful there. So, we might have to squeeze [someone] in – there’s rules about certain numbers of vets [have to play in preseason games] – but otherwise we want to probably wait until next week.”
Bergeron has been dealing with a nagging groin injury for the last few seasons and he had a PRP shot following the Bruins Game 7 loss in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. He told the media a week ago he was still behind a bit but it appears now that arguably the Bruins’ most important player, is almost up to speed.