It’s time to recognize Patrice Bergeron for what he is: the best all-around player in hockey. That’s right. Not just the Bruins, hockey. No one does more all over the ice than Bergeron. Not Sidney Crosby. Not Alex Ovechkin. Not Patrick Kane. Not even Bergeron’s counterpart on the Blackhawks, Jonathan Toews, who unseated Bergeron and won this year’s Selke Award given to the game’s best defensive forward. No one in hockey is playing better on both ends of the ice than No. 37 for the Bruins. Take Game 3 Monday night at TD Garden, a 2-0 Bruins win that puts Boston two wins away from a second Stanley Cup in three years. Bergeron’s numbers were staggering. He won 24-of-28 faceoffs. He had seven shots and one power-play goal. He led his team with a remarkable 32 shifts in 19 minutes, 49 seconds on the ice. Jaromir Jagr fed a perfect pass that Bergeron finished for a power-play goal in the second period and a 2-0 Bruins lead. But Jagr, a 41-year-old lock for the

Claude Julien has instilled many championship characteristics in his team. They are fundamentally sound on defense. They stand up for each other and call each other out in the sanctity of the dressing room and never outside. They take care of themselves, on and off the ice. But most of all, these Bruins don’t back down, from the opponent or each other. They never let the moment overwhelm them. That is precisely why they won on Saturday night in their seventh overtime game of these Stanley Cup playoffs. As the Blackhawks were getting more and more tired after playing their sixth overtime period in eight days, the Bruins could have easily sat back and waited for just the right time to pounce. That’s how a bad break can turn into a game-losing goal. Instead, Julien reminded his team to go into full attack mode. Don’t back down. Don’t ever back down. “I think the guys really ramp it up in overtime,” Julien said Sunday. “Like, you know, we don't let

FOXBORO -- I came, I saw, I survived. And I think I believe Tim Tebow is actually now a formal member of the New England Patriots. Of course, I was also standing in the middle of about 50 people waiting on Tebow to approach a pylon and cone set up by team media relations representatives who had every best intention of making the “Tebow Time” availability as civil as possible. When I was pushed from behind and nearly stampeded -- literally -- by TV photographers behind me who saw that Tebow wasn’t going to make it to the pylon, I realized that Tebowmania had arrived in Foxboro in full force. But after a day, it’s already died down. This will not be the same as New York. I received several emails from friends and worried souls saying something along the lines of “enjoy the circus.” My reply? In so many words I told them this will not be a circus. Bill Belichick is smarter than that. He’ll never allow to happen in Foxboro what happened in the

About 90 minutes before Wednesday’s Game 3 at TD Garden, before fans were in the building and with very few eyes on him, Jaromir Jagr went for spin on the ice in front of the Bruins bench. The skate lasted less than 30 seconds. Nearly six hours later, he would win a pivotal battle for a puck about 30 feet away with one of the sport’s biggest stars that would set up Boston’s game-winning goal from Patrice Bergeron in double overtime. Somehow, after 95 minutes of intense playoff hockey, the 41-year-old Jagr summoned up enough strength and energy when the Bruins needed it the most to make the play that put the Bruins one win from the Stanley Cup finals. “I think he's got that experience, I guess, to always be at the right place on the ice, and on that play it's just a perfect example that he's buying in and he wants to help in any way he can, and that play right there, we don't get a goal if he doesn't make that play,” Bergeron said. Brad Marchand was on the