Bergeron expects to be ready for Bruins camp

The Boston Bruins begin training camp on Sept. 11, and center Patrice Bergeron expects to be ready when they hit the ice.

"I'm feeling pretty good. Recovery's going well," Bergeron told the Bruins website from Quebec City, where he spends the offseason. "I'd say I'm pretty much 95 percent back to where I'd like to be and I'm feeling pretty good."

Few players came out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs more banged-up than Bergeron. He revealed after Boston was defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 6 of the Final that he had been playing with a broken rib and torn cartilage. He sustained a separated shoulder during Game 6 and was discovered afterward to have a punctured lung.

Despite the injuries, Bergeron tied for the team playoff lead with nine goals, including the overtime winner in Game 7 of the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and finished with 15 points averaging 20:43 of ice time.

Bergeron needed a three-day stay in the hospital to recover from the punctured lung; otherwise, the injuries needed a few weeks of rest to heal. He didn't resume training until late July.

"After all of the rehab I did in Boston, I went back home [to Quebec] and tried to catch up with my friends and family," he said. "I didn't do too much, time was pretty short and I wasn't 100 percent right away, so I had to take some time.

"I took four weeks, sat back pretty much, and tried to relax and maintain some of the stuff, my legs a little bit and do some stuff that I could do, but I couldn't do much with my core because of my ribs."

The injuries didn't prevent Bergeron from signing an eight-year contract extension that will keep the 28-year-old with the Bruins through 2021-22. He's also been invited to Canada's Olympic Development Camp this month, along with Boston teammates Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand.

Next on his list will be making sure Bergeron's recovery is completed by the time camp gets underway.

"I'm still shooting for being ready for training camp," he said. "I've had no setbacks so far and things have gone well and moved along. I feel pretty good in workouts so, yeah, I feel pretty confident that things will be fine and I'll be ready for camp."