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Patrice Bergeron has done well in the month since he discussed the incident with the media. (FILE/BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters) |
His days are getting better, and Patrice Bergeron is thankful for that. The pounding headaches haven't disappeared, but they are fewer. The wooziness and dizziness, which roll his stomach over and send him back to bed for up to 60 minutes at a time, have not fully abated, but they also don't ruin as many of his daily plans.
"Every week, I'm improving," said the Bruins' 22-year-old center, continuing to inch his way back to normalcy after sustaining a Grade 3 concussion and broken nose Oct. 27. "I can concentrate more than I used to, so I'd say it's getting a lot more positive. Just about every day, it gets better."
That said, there is everyday-living better, and there is the kind of better that would get Bergeron on skates - eventually with that spoked-B sweater draped over his broad shoulders. As of today, though optimistic he will return, he has no idea when that day will come.
"Obviously, I'd like to be back [this] week," said Bergeron, noting the layoff, now six weeks, is the longest in-season break he has taken since his schoolboy days in Quebec. "I think about it every day, and I'm staying positive. I want to get back this season, for sure, and at the same time, I don't want to risk anything, take any chances. But that's my plan right now, it's my goal."
The tone of his voice, clear over the telephone, was typical Bergeron - stoic, conservative, consistently positive. No surprise, even though currently on a forced hiatus, compliments of a near-lethal hit from behind by Flyers defenseman Randy Jones, that he would be pondering a 2007-08 return date. Wishful thinking or engrained pragmatism? No telling.
"I'm improving these last few weeks, like I say, and in my heart I want to get back, too," he said. "So I believe it's an achievable goal to get back this season. We'll see what happens."
A trip home
Bergeron recently made his way home to Quebec City, the first time in some five weeks he strayed more than a few miles from his downtown Boston condo. With his mother, Sylvie Bergeron-Cleary, at the wheel, they motored the six-plus hours north, leaving behind both TD Banknorth Garden and a growing, irritating case of cabin fever.
"The walls were kind of closing in on me at the end," he said, reached over the weekend at his Quebec City home. "So it was good to get out of there, you know, to get a change of scenery, see my family. But most important, just be able to relax, have some quiet time . . . and just look at something different than those walls."
According to Bergeron, his neurologist has told him he probably could begin to drive, but only for a few minutes at a time. He's yet to reach for the keys. When he goes somewhere now, he leaves the driving to friends or family, or he goes on foot. He said he stretches every day and goes for walks, and with his improved concentration and focus, he has been able to make those walks a little longer each day. Improvement a few steps at a time.
"I'm just home, and that's about it," he said. "I haven't gone out to a movie or anything. I think maybe [this] week I'll go shopping. Christmas is coming, so I guess I'd better go shopping, right?"
Less pain now
His neck, virtually without range of motion in the days after the hit, is pain-free most of the time, said Bergeron. He'll awaken with morning stiffness in his neck now and then, but it wears off with stretching and typical day-to-day activities. His nose remains unset, because he would have to undergo anesthesia, and the club's medical staff didn't want to put him out so soon after sustaining the severe concussion.
Bergeron soon will return to Boston, his mother again handling the driving. "She's a good driver," he said. "And she likes my music - that's good."
Once back in town, he'll sit down with Bruins trainer Don Del Negro, with the aim of perhaps resuming physical activity more demanding than walking. To this point, under doctors' advice, he has done nothing that would elevate his heart rate, for fear that would aggravate his postconcussion symptoms and prolong his stay off the ice.
"I'll try to start doing something when I get back," he said. "I'll talk to Don and the rest of the trainers, and see what the next step is."
Shaken by replay
The first week following the hit, with little energy or desire to leave his condo, Bergeron watched the replay of the devastating check, Jones nailing him high to the upper body and finishing him with a heavy elbow up around the head.
"I was, you know, shaken by it, seeing it," he said. "I didn't like to see it, over and over. I didn't want to watch games at first. Now, I can watch games again. It's OK. If I see a guy going into a corner, I'm OK with it, I can watch."
Which leads to what is often the most difficult part of the journey back from a serious head injury - finding a way to deal with the psychological effects. Easier for some than others, and Bergeron knows that will be part of getting back.
"So far, I'm fine with it . . . " he said, silent for a moment before continuing, ". . . no, I'm sure I will be fine."
The hit, and the damage it caused, have not left Bergeron an angry young man.
"No, I'm not. It's not about being angry," he said. "Like I said before [in a brief news conference in Boston], I just don't want it to happen to anyone again.
"I think it's about respect between players, and I think talking about that helps the game, and maybe will help kids, so that [they] don't go out and do the kind of hits that hurt people. It's simple, if you can see the number on the back [of an opponent], just don't hit. But it's not about being angry at anyone, not even Randy Jones. I want this to be about trying to change [dangerous hits]."
Last week, more than 3 1/2 years after then-Canucks winger Todd Bertuzzi broke the neck of Steve Moore, then an Avalanche forward, with an ugly beatdown, more details of the event were divulged in the media. Allegedly, then-Canucks coach Marc Crawford demanded that someone in the Vancouver dressing room make Moore pay for a hit a month earlier on Canucks forward Marcus Naslund. Moore, who has been told by doctors he never will play again, has increased the amount of his lawsuit against Bertuzzi from $25 million to $38 million.
The courtroom, said Bergeron, is not a place he will go for a remedy.
"That's never crossed my mind, to go with a lawsuit against Randy Jones," he said. "It's not about that. It's about making sure this stuff stops, that's all. I'm not going [the lawsuit] path."
Instead, his path is more direct. Load the car, follow the signs for Montreal, take a sharp left when the signs say "New Hampshire" and "USA Customs." It was frigid in Quebec over the weekend, said Bergeron. Time to think of warmer thoughts, like a familiar patch of ice, three floors above Causeway Street.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
