Bergeron will hope to erase bad memory
Last time he played in Hamilton, Dogs lost Game 7 and the Calder Cup
Garry McKay
The Hamilton Spectator
(Oct 8, 2009)
Marc-Andre Bergeron says he has a lot of fond memories of his time in Hamilton — and one really bad one.
“Game 7,” said Bergeron who can now force a smile about his worst time in the Steel City. It was their 3-0 loss at home to the Houston Aeros in the seventh and deciding game of the 2003 Calder Cup final.
That was Bergeron’s final game in Hamilton although he will return to the fold tomorrow night when the Dogs host the Rockford IceHogs in their American Hockey League home opener.
The Bulldogs parent club, the Montreal Canadiens have been hit hard by injuries to their defence with Andrei Markov, and Ryan O’Byrne both out for a significant amount of time.
The Habs addressed the problem this week when they signed Bergeron, 28, an unrestricted free agent to a one-year contract.
He’s in Hamilton for what’s expected to be a fairly short conditioning stint before he joins the Habs. It’s expected that Bergeron will be in the lineup tomorrow night when the Bulldogs play their home opener at Copps Coliseum against the Rockford IceHogs.
“I haven’t been on the ice for a little while. I felt pretty good although towards the end I was getting a little tired,” Bergeron was saying yesterday after Bulldogs coach Guy Boucher put his charges through a two-hour-plus workout at Copps.
“This was the first time I’ve been a free agent and I really didn’t expect it to take this long.”
Bergeron was in the Edmonton Oilers system during his two years in Hamilton. The 5-foot-9, 198-pound defenceman has played 339 games in the NHL with Edmonton, the New York Islanders, Anaheim and Minnesota and helped the Oilers make it to the Stanley Cup final in the 2005-2006 campaign. He has 160 points on 62 goals and 98 assists.
As a French Canadian the native of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, is thrilled to be joining the storied Habs.