At the completion of Boston's season in April, Bruins centerman Patrice Bergeron revealed that he played through the 2016-17 campaign with a sports hernia issue that ended up requiring offseason surgery.

Despite the injury, Bergeron produced respectable offensive numbers (21 goals, 32 assists) while earning his fourth Selke Trophy as the games' best defensive forward. And, following a summer of rehab, Bergeron finally feels healthy once again.

"Still doing some rehab. I'll be ready for camp," said Bergeron, according to Matt Kalman of NHL.com. "I feel good. There's still some restriction there that we have to work on, but overall, I feel pretty good. I feel good on the ice, I feel good in the gym.

"We still have to definitely do some treatments, but definitely I feel good and I know I'll be ready for camp."

While Bergeron admits he still has work to do to get back to 100 percent, he was also open about how the injury affected his production last campaign.

" ... It was hard that way, it was in my head also, but once I was past that hurdle of realizing it's going to be there for the whole year and just kind of not worrying about it, I felt better," Bergeron said.

"But that being said, it's still one of those where - it's not an excuse for the slow start I had and missing some chances - but still it was slowing me down a bit and was just annoying."

Regardless of last season's dip in offense, Bergeron is still one of the best two-way forwards in the game and an integral part of the Bruins' core. A healthy Bergeron to start the year can only mean good things for Boston.

"Hopefully I'll have a better start," he said. "That being said, I'm trying to get back to my game, playing both ways. You always want to push your limits, be better offensively but also defensively and in every aspect of the game."

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