Patrice Bergeron is one of the NHL's 31 "Last Men In" candidates to make the 2019 NHL All-Star Game, and he needs your help ... to lose.

That's right: The Boston Bruins center openly admitted Wednesday he'd rather not participate in the Jan. 26 All-Star Game in San Jose. He has a valid excuse, though.

"No, not really," Bergeron told 98.5 The Sports Hub's "Toucher & Rich" when asked if he cared about winning the "Last Men In" vote. "I just had a newborn baby boy. He's a month old, so obviously that time would be nice to be home."

There you have it.

Here's how the "Last Men In" process works: The NHL picks one player from each team as a candidate, and the player with the most fan votes from each of the league's four divisions earns a trip to the All-Star Game.

Bergeron's competition in the Atlantic Division includes seven other players: the Buffalo Sabres' Jeff Skinner, the Detroit Red Wings' Dylan Larkin, the Florida Panthers' Aleksander Barkov, the Montreal Canadiens' Shea Weber, the Ottawa Senators' Mark Stone, the Tampa Bay Lightning's Brayden Point and the Toronto Maple Leafs' Morgan Rielly.

Bergeron certainly has played like an All-Star of late, with 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in eight games since returning from a rib injury in late December. But if you'd like to do the 33-year-old veteran a solid, head to NHL.com and vote for one of those other guys.

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