Patrice Bergeron Is Battling It Out for the Cover of NHL ’15
The Bruins may have lost to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 7 of the playoff series earlier this month, but now Boston has a chance to exact revenge.
Through June 1, Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron will be battling it out with the Candiens’ P.K. Subban online, for a rare opportunity to grace the cover of EA Sports’ NHL ’15 video game. The pair is in round three—the final round—of the contest, and it’s up to fans to pick whose hockey-beaten face will eventually sit front and center on the thousands of games that will be distributed when they finally hit the shelves.
The game’s creators are letting hockey enthusiasts call the shots and decide the winner by tallying their daily Twitter and Instagram posts using a special hashtag containing each players’ name. Eight players who “represent the next-generation of the NHL” were originally selected to compete for the cover, but now it’s down to Bergeron and Subban, and the matchup is adding fuel to a rivalry that has been smoldering for ages.
To help kickstart the effort to make sure Bergeron gets a W, former Bruins player Andrew Ference started blasting out tweets on Tuesday rallying fans. In his tweets, Ference told tall-tales about Bergeron’s life in hopes that the 140-character stories would go viral. “Bergy for the cover because: He saves kittens while on vacation. And we all love kittens,” Ference said in one tweet, which was then shared close to 1,000 times—and that wasn’t even the most popular testimonial on his friend’s behalf.
Ference, embracing the mantra from the days of “Chuck Norris facts,” also told his 98,000 followers that Bergeron is the only hockey player that has a dinosaur named after him, called the “Bergy-sauraus,” which makes him the perfect candidate to beat out Subban for the cover. “Legendary,” Ference said.
Here’s a roundup of some of Ference’s other Tweets, sent out to score points for Bergeron.
https://twitter.com/Ferknuckle/status/471356451072405504
https://twitter.com/Ferknuckle/status/471347936321101824
https://twitter.com/Ferknuckle/status/471348469400338432
If Bergeron wins the online voting competition, he will be the second Bruins player in the history of the video game to appear on the cover while wearing Boston gear. The last time a player from the Bruins was featured on the cover was in 1994, when then-goalie Andy Moog was bestowed the honor.
