Death. Taxes. And Patrice Bergeron taking home another Selke.
For a record-breaking fifth time, the Bruins captain has been recognized as the best defensive forward in the NHL — as the league announced on Sunday afternoon that Bergeron took home the Frank J. Selke Trophy in what ended up being an impressive landslide.
Bergeron, who has been stamped into the finalist ballot for the Selke for 11 straight seasons now, appeared on 194 of the 195 ballots cast and received 160 first-place votes for 1,798 voting points. Second-place Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames was named on 157 ballots, including 21 first-place selections, for 878 points. Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers, the 2020-21 Selke winner, was third in voting with 746 points (10 first-place selections). This marks the most decisive Selke win for Bergeron in his career, no small feat for a player in his 18th season.
Bergeron's teammate Brad Marchand finished 12th in the Selke voting with 53 points.
With five Selkes etched into his resume, Bergeron now stands alone when it comes to NHL forwards anchored by defensive excellence — finally breaking his four-trophy deadlock with Habs legend Bob Gainey for the most ever by one player.
Bergeron’s string of 11 straight finalist nods is also impressive in its own right, surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s run of 10 consecutive years of top three Hart Trophy finishes as the longest ever for a voted NHL Award.
There was plenty of discourse to parse through last season when Bergeron finished second (522 points) to Barkov (780 points), with the B’s great knocked entirely off of some ballots as voters shifted their attention to the bevy of young, two-way talents sprinkled across the league.
And yes, while voter fatigue is definitely a thing, Bergeron ensured that no such conversation or debate was going to spill over into 2022 — considering that the aging pivot casually went out and put forth arguably the most dominant defensive season from a forward in over a decade.
Selke nominees are out. Let's dig into the three players chosen.
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 17, 2022
Bergeron should win, and I don't think it's that close. 1.6 on-ice expected goals against per 60 minutes; next-lowest was 1.85. Guy shut everyone down while creating offence at a high-end rate as well. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/TBmjbXAVhT
While it’s easy to take Bergeron’s talents for granted (especially the often overlooked details of his game that can make the difference on an intercepted feed, stick lift or D-zone takeaway), the center significantly tilted the ice in Boston’s favor whenever he was out for a shift, with the B’s outscoring teams, 49-25, during Bergeron’s 891:10 of 5v5 ice time this season.
And down either end of the ice, Bergeron was a titan for the Bruins. The foundation of the Bruins’ success for most of the 2021-22 season was a stingy, structured defensive presence — with Boston boasting a 5v5 expected goals against per 60 minutes rate of 2.23 when Bergeron was off the ice, well below the league average.
But when Bergeron was ON the ice, that expected goals against rate per 60 minutes plummeted down to a minuscule 1.65 — with the slot and other Grade-A areas of the ice morphing into a black hole for opposing scoring chances.
Boston’s expected goals FOR per 60 minutes also spiked from 2.51 to 3.55 when Bergeron was out on the ice. Sprinkle in another sterling season at the faceoff dot (a league-leading 991 wins and 61.9 win percentage), and Bergeron had this trophy in the bag.
If Bergeron does indeed opt to hang up his skates this summer, it won’t be because his game is tailing off, that's for sure.