There was a reason Brad Marchand was so emotional following the Bruins Game 7 loss on Saturday afternoon.
While the loss in Carolina officially ended the Bruins hopes of another Stanley Cup run, the uncertainty of whats next is what had Marchand fighting back tears as he addressed the media following his team’s 3-2 defeat.
Marchand will be back with the Bruins for the 2022-23 season, three years remain on his contract.
It’s the uncertainty around captain Patrice Bergeron and the reality that Saturday’s loss could be the last time we see Bergeron in a Bruins uniform.
Bergeron is set to become an unrestricted free agent.
“He’s the backbone of our team. He’s obviously the biggest part of our team. So yeah, we want him to come back,” Marchand said. “Whatever happens, he’s earned the right to make whatever decision he wants and take whatever time that he needs. I guess time will tell.”
After the Bruins and Hurricanes shook hands, Bergeron stood by the door on the ice that leads the Bruins to their locker room. As captains often do at the end of a series, Bergeron hugged each player that just went to battle with him for 60 minutes for the seventh time in the series.
But from afar, these hugs felt different. They looked like more than season ending hugs.
“That's why this one probably hurts more — is the unknown for next year with him,” Marchand said. “He's done so much for this group and sacrificed so much that it would have been nice to make a good run for him. So it's disappointing."
Over the course of the last few seasons, the Bruins organization has said goodbyes to players like Zdeno Chara, David Krejci and Tuukka Rask.
While players like that have been a big part of the organization’s success in last 10 plus years, a Bergeron-less Bruins would be a tough pill to swallow.
“It's too early right now," Bergeron said about deciding on his feature. "It's too fresh right now. It still stings from a hard-fought series. We came up short. I'm going to have to think about it, but I'm not there right now."
The 36-year old Bergeron just completed his 18th season with 65 points, the most he’s had since a 79-point campaign in 2018-19.
His two-way game hasn’t taken a dip, still playing at an elite level.
If this truly is it for Bergeron either in a Bruins uniform, or at the NHL level, it was a hell of a run. What’s next for the Bruins remains to be seen. Regardless of what Bergeron does with his future, the road the Bruins take from here is an important one.
As Marchand said, “I guess time will tell.”
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