Ty Anderson: I didn’t expect Patrice Bergeron to retire
Following the breaking news of Patrice Bergeron’s retirement, 985TheSportsHub.com‘s Ty Anderson joined Zolak & Bertrand to share his reaction.
Didn’t see this coming…
Ty Anderson: Listen, I was very surprised by this. Obviously, you know, as you said, in not so many words there. I thought he was coming back. The main reason why I thought he was going to be coming back was still a lot of good hockey left in him, if you ask me and this is where I want to ask people to not hyper-fixate on the final three games, but rather the 78-game sample size that came before. This was arguably his healthiest season yet up until game 82 in Montreal and so for that reason and some other reasons here, 20th year with the team. Only a few guys have done that… centennial season. And if he came back, he would have seen Brad Marchand hit 1,000 games. It felt like a natural reason to be back, but ultimately he decided otherwise this morning.
McCarthy: Ty, where do you rank Patrice Bergeron in the history of the Boston Bruins?
Ty Anderson: Top 5, basically because you know you’re big ones they’re obviously are (Bobby) Orr, (Ray) Bourque, and (Johnny) Bucyk, and then you get your four/five you know… (Phil) Esposito, (Eddie) Shore. It kind of all depends on what you are really valuing in terms of you know franchise impact, statistical measurements, whatever. But Patrice Bergeron oversaw what is basically the most competitive era of my generation and maybe the one that’s even before me a little bit in terms of competitive Bruins hockey. The team was always in it basically under Bergeron aside from what, two years where they had a reset off the ice, on the ice. He really was the identity of that team. Both he and (Zdeno) Chara were kind of neck and neck there in that respect. But I think there’s a way that he carries himself that really the only person I think is comparable in terms of that impact is Johnny Bucyk. So definitely top five for me, just a matter is he four, or is he five?
Listen to the full segment!
