Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron is the best defensive forward in the NHL, and he's provided further proof of that during the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Bergeron is a four-time winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the top two-way forward in the NHL, and he's a finalist again in 2019. If playoff performance was included in the voting for this award, Bergeron would be the runaway winner (he'll probably win anyway).
Check out this crazy stat on Bergeron's defensive masterclass in the postseason so far (numbers below are from 5-on-5 action):
Those seven players are among the best offensive threats in the NHL, and as a group they combined for 226 goals in the regular season.
Bergeron spent most of his 5-on-5 ice time in Monday night's Game 6 against the Columbus Blue Jackets matched up with the Nick Foligno, Boone Jenner and Cam Atkinson line. This line was unable to score against Bergeron as the B's earned a 3-0 victory to end their second-round series.
Bergeron, and his linemates Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, will soon match up against one of the top lines of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final. Carolina's trio of Nino Niederreiter, Jordan Staal and Teuvo Teravainen probably is the most likely matchup for Bergeron in that series.
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