Bergfors: Big Problem?

Niclas Bergfors (photo courtesy of @Devsfan55)

Rookie Niclas Bergfors has had a hell of a season. When the season started he came out swinging. He got his first point, an assist, in the first game of the season, against the Flyers. He got two goals and four assists in October, four goals and six assists in November, and seven goals and three assists in December. He even got two goals in a 3-2 win against the Capitals on November 4^th and has scored a goal in all four games against the Penguins. For a while, he was neck-and-neck with John Tavares for the title of “highest scoring rookie”.

 But January has not been kind to Bergfors. He hasn’t tallied a point since January 5^th and Jacques Lemaire has given him significantly less time on the ice lately. And with the trade deadline coming up on March 3^rd, I’ve heard fans name Bergfors as a potential trade.

So what’s happened lately? Well, first of all the Devils have had their worst month so far this season. October and December both saw the Devils dropping four games, and two more losses and one overtime loss in November. January isn’t over yet and they’ve already lost five games.  Some of this can be attributed to the injuries of Paul Martin, David Clarkson, Dainius Zubrus, and Patrik Elias. But overall, the team has looked slow and tired in their losses (and some of their wins) this month. So I don’t think Bergfors is solely to blame for a general malaise that has fallen over the entire team.

But Bergfors is having a problem right now. It’s hard to say with 100% certainty what the problem is, but from what I’ve seen I think part of the reason is that he’s discouraged that his time on the ice has fallen from the 16-19 minute range down to 10-12 minutes per game. Instead of fighting harder to earn more ice time, he (like most of the team lately) has been sitting back. In all the press conferences I’ve seen where Lemaire talks about Bergfors, Lemaire always has some kind of “criticism” about him, even when he’s playing fine. Bergfors is a very talented player, but just because Lemaire keeps telling him he can do better, even when he’s playing great, doesn’t mean he should take it personally. Lemaire is simply asking him to try harder. It doesn’t mean he’s a terrible player (he’s not), it just means he can always be better; every player can.

One of my Twitter followers, @lrau_hockey, suggested that Lemaire’s method of pushing his team really hard since the very beginning of the season may be wearing all the players down, not just Bergfors. There’s a very good chance that that could be true. Bergfors isn’t the only one who hasn’t scored lately. The top line of Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Travis Zajac have done most of the scoring this month. 15 out of 25 goals scored so far this month came from those three players.

On the bright side, the Devils began picking up their energy last week, with a shut-out against the Florida Panthers and a win against the Islanders on Long Island. Hopefully we’ll see some more production from Bergfors and the rest of the team over the next few weeks.

So is the problem Bergfors or is he just being affected by the team-wide slump? What do you think?

Kyle Leathers can be reached on Twitter, @kleathers.