Mixed signals on Patrice Bergeron’s return for Game 2

As we wrote on Monday, many of the Boston Bruins' deficiencies in their Game 1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning are assets that Patrice Bergeron brings to the ice: defensive competence, special teams play and above all else faceoff prowess.

His return from a "mild" concussion in Game 2 would be an undeniable boost for Bruins.

Question is: Will he return?

Bruins Blog said early Tuesday morning that he won't:

A source close to Patrice Bergeron told the Globe's Kevin Dupont that the center will not play tonight. Bergeron has skated the last three days. He participated in practice yesterday. Bergeron is expected to skate this morning. However, Bergeron has yet to take hard contact, which indicates he has not been cleared for game action. Bergeron could return later in the series.

But after Bruins practice on Tuesday, the "no" became a "maybe" according to coach Claude Julien. From the post-practice media scrum:

Q. �Any update on Patrice and Lucic not skating this morning? �Looked like he took a puck yesterday. �Their availability for tonight?
COACH JULIEN: �As far as Bergeron was concerned, I think if he's in you're going to see him in the warm-up tonight. �And Lucic, no issues there at all.

Q. �If I can ask a follow-up. �Do you know whether he'll be in the lineup, and if you do know, is it a competitive advantage not to say this morning?
COACH JULIEN: �No comments. �Good try.

Q. �Can we go back to the Bergeron thing? �I'm just not sure...
COACH JULIEN: �No. �I think we need to move on to other things here. �I've got nothing else to say about Bergeron right now. �If we want to talk about the game, I'm open to that. �If not, I think we're done.

So when asked if there was a competitive advantage to keeping Bergeron's status a mystery, Julien answered "no comment," which is more refined than banging together two cymbals like a windup chimp screaming "YES YES YES."

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