NEW YORK — Brady Berard kept eying the clock at Boston College hockey practice Monday afternoon. The junior forward knew his brother, Brett, was making his NHL debut for the New York Rangers that evening, but time was working against him. Madison Square Garden was 200 miles away, after all. As the minutes passed, he accepted he’d probably be watching the game on TV.
At 4:20 p.m., a little under three hours before puck drop in Manhattan, Boston coach Greg Brown called the team in for a huddle.
“Some of us know some guys (who) play in the NHL, but to have a family member who plays is pretty special,” he told the team. Then he turned to Brady.
“Brady, get the f— on the plane. Go support your brother, go support your family.”
Brady didn’t need to be told twice. He found time to shower and left the Boston College rink at 4:37, his flight booked to New York.
“I got (changed) in probably 10 minutes,” he said from the Madison Square Garden concourse. “I’m usually a marinate guy in the locker room, so that was pretty fast for me.”
Fortunately for him, there was next to no security line at Boston Logan International Airport. He and his girlfriend arrived at the airport at 5:05 and made the 5:37 flight. The plane landed at 6:50, and an Uber dropped him off at Madison Square Garden at 7:20, just a few minutes after puck drop.
Brady was one of about 35 people who came to Monday’s game in support of the older Berard brother. His parents were shocked and delighted when they caught sight of him in his black hat and white jacket. So was Brett, who pulled his brother in for a hug after the game.
Monday was a less-than-ideal start to the week for the Rangers. They lost 5-2 to the St. Louis Blues, and league sources confirmed a report from Elliotte Friedman earlier that day that general manager Chris Drury had sent word to the 31 other teams that he was open to making trades. Captain Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider, the team’s longest-tenured player, were mentioned specifically by name.
The 22-year-old Berard offered at least a bit of a bright spot. The 5-foot-9 winger wasn’t perfect but showed flashes of promise in 11:13 of action, picking up his first point in the process.
“I thought he worked really hard out there,” said coach Peter Laviolette, who didn’t have many positive things to say after the game. “I thought he was trying to make a difference.”
Berard, who led AHL Hartford in goals last season, is listed as a top-five Rangers prospect in The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler’s rankings. On Sunday, the 2020 fifth-round pick was putting on a suit ahead of a Wolf Pack game when Rangers assistant general manager Ryan Martin called to tell him he was headed to the NHL. Berard called his dad, mom and brother first, describing them as “the three most important people in my life.” His mom, Lynne, shed a few tears when she found out.
Berard’s dad, David, is the men’s hockey coach at Stonehill College, and his team was off Monday. Plenty of Berard’s friends got to New York for the game, too; they are still in college and were in their native Rhode Island for Thanksgiving break.
“Everything kind of worked,” David said.
Berard was on the ice for the Blues’ first two goals, though he wasn’t at fault for the first, which stemmed from Mika Zibanejad and Trouba failing to connect on a pass behind the Rangers’ net. On the second goal, though, Berard didn’t stay in front of Radek Faksa, who tried shooting the puck. That led to a scrum in front of the net and an eventual Zack Bolduc goal.
The rookie helped avenge the mistake. Midway through the second period, he flung a puck into the offensive zone and then received a pass from Will Cuylle behind the Rangers’ net. He tried for a wraparound goal and flung the puck off goalie Joel Hofer’s pads. Zibanejad found it and fed Cuylle who then shot at the open net. The goal gave Berard a secondary assist for the first point of his NHL career.
“It was special,” Berard said. “It was crazy to be on the ice for that.”
“I think he was a little frustrated because he was minus-2 at that point,” David said shortly after. “I think it’s probably a big weight off his shoulder, and then he had a couple shifts where he was really moving his feet after.”
Brady jokingly took credit for his older brother driving to the net on the play.
“He learned it from me, I think,” he said, laughing. “It was a great play. I learn from his poise. He has sick poise with the puck, sick hockey IQ. Obviously a lot of things I can emulate from his game.”
Brady, who will be back at Boston College for 2 p.m. practice Tuesday, is teammates with Rangers prospects Gabe Perreault and Drew Fortescue. He added both were pumped for Brett, with whom they keep in touch.
Berard finished the game with two shots and spent time on the second power-play unit. According to Natural Stat Trick, New York had 44.7 percent of the expected goal share when the Cuylle-Zibanejad-Berard trio was on the ice — below 50 percent but the best mark of any line on the team.
Though disappointed with the loss after the game, Berard called his debut “an awesome experience.” He had butterflies the 24 hours leading up to the game and was too nervous to take a pregame nap, but he tried to slow the game down as much as he could when it began.
“It was everything I’ve always dreamed of,” he said.
(Top photo: Danny Wild / Imagn Images)
