Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron joined NHL Live to discuss his nomination for the Frank J. Selke Trophy, which is awarded to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game, and his take on the Bruins' performance in the regular season.
Bergeron is a Selke finalist for the fourth straight season. He won the award in 2012 and 2014, and was the runner-up to Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews in 2013.
Toews and Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings are the other finalists.
"It's definitely something very special," Bergeron said. "It's an honor to be nominated. I've been lucky to be part of a great organization and teammates have been helping me a lot to get that recognition.
"I've always tried to play a solid two-way game. I take a lot of pride in defending as much as I try to score some goals. That's the way I've been brought up."
Bergeron led the Bruins in scoring with 23 goals and 55 points in 81 games. He also led the League by winning 60.2 percent of his face-offs along with face-off wins (1,175) and total face-offs (1,951). But despite winning 41 games and earning 96 points, the Bruins failed to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs and fired general manager Peter Chiarelli.
"It's definitely disappointing," Bergeron said. "Obviously for us it's a failure. We have to definitely bounce back next year and try to regroup. We have way higher expectations of ourselves as a team and also as an organization, but also for our fans. We deserve a lot of the blame as players for how the season ended.
"When you underperform and you don't get the results that's expected, changes happen. It's unfortunate for Peter."
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