(Boston) Playing for 20 years in one of the NHL’s most passionate markets comes with its fair share of attention. Becoming the captain of one of the most iconic franchises in professional sports imposes the same burden.
Patrice Bergeron has never denied the task incumbent on him as a professional athlete and as a public figure. The fact remains that he always preferred that the spotlight be shone on his teammates first.
It will have been true every day of his long and successful career. On and off the ice, he gave himself body and soul for his team. It was therefore not surprising, as he bowed out, to hear him speak about the way he chose to announce his retirement. “I didn’t want any flafla. I didn’t want it to be too much for me. »
This is what prompted him, a few weeks ago, to sit down in front of his computer to start writing a letter. A letter of thanks, intended to pay tribute to those who allowed him to live the dream he cherished since his early childhood – his wife, his children, his brother and his parents, his friends, his agents, the Bruins organization…
“I was trying to figure out the best way to say it the best I could,” Bergeron said Wednesday morning during a press briefing at Boston’s TD Garden.
Writing, he will admit a little later during a casual conversation, has never been a strength, let alone a passion. He is anything but in his habit of putting his ideas on paper, he who is nevertheless one of the most eloquent and charismatic hockey players in the NHL.
However, it was this medium that imposed itself on him at this critical moment in his life. “I knew writing down my thoughts and feelings was probably the best way for me to express how I felt, what I wanted to say to the people who helped me so much, who had huge influence on my career,” he continued. It was the best solution. »
He didn’t take anything lightly. A friend from Boston gave him a hand in writing the English version, while another friend, this one from Quebec, helped him with the French version. It was imperative for him to address the supporters of the province in their language. This probably explains why a former Nordiques fan who played almost 1,500 games in a Bruins uniform commands so much respect from fans of the Canadiens…
“It took a lot of time and a lot of help,” he says, especially with grammar and text structure. “There aren’t 50 synonyms for expressing gratitude,” he would later add with a laugh.
Still, “the majority of the letter” came from him. He gave it to the Bruins a few days ago, and they released it.
The captain even wanted to stick to this missive, in which he also said goodbye to the Bostonians. However, the organization invited him to meet with media representatives. Twenty local journalists and a few Quebec reporters interviewed him for the last time on Wednesday.
Bergeron lent himself to the exercise, once again without flinching. Happy, finally, to speak directly to the supporters through television, among other things.
At the end of the press conference, he left the podium in silence, almost embarrassed. He pretended to leave the scene, but instead decided to hang around to chat with organization employees or reporters, some of whom had been with him for 20 years.
You could hear him asking them questions about their summer, about their family. He himself will tell them about his children, his newborn baby of barely 1 month, the charity tournament that bears his name and which will take place in Quebec in two weeks. But of him? Few, if any.
There are things that definitely won’t change.
