Boston Bruins Lose Captain Zdeno Chara

The Boston Bruins lost Game 4 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final by a score of 4-2 on Monday night. That might not be all they lost. In the second period, captain Zdeno Chara blocked a shot off the stick of the Blues’ Brayden Schenn that rode up the shaft of Chara’s stick and struck the Boston defender in the face. A bloodied Chara immediately dropped to the ice and grabbed his mouth, in visible pain.

The Slovakian giant quickly returned to his feet and was taken to the locker room where the Boston training staff got to work on repairs. Chara did not return to ice in the second, but did rejoin his teammates for the start of the third period. Chara’s helmet had a fishbowl added for extra facial protection, but it didn’t matter.

Chara was not on the ice for a key penalty kill early in the third, and only saw the ice when the broadcast went to a TV timeout. He was seen lightly skating in front of the Boston bench, passing words of encouragement on to his teammates. In the end, that’s all Chara did in the third period. He was not healthy enough to return to the game, and did not play another shift after the blocked shot.

Bruce Cassidy met with the media postgame and revealed that Chara was advised to not return to the contest. “Very uncomfortable, was advised not to return to play. Had some stitches, probably some dental work in the near future. He wanted to come out on the bench and be with his teammates.”

As it pertains to Game 5, Cassidy was non-committal on Chara’s potential status. “Don’t know his status for Game 5” admitted Cassidy. Chara will be re-evaluated when the club returns to Boston at some point on Tuesday. In the event that the captain isn’t ready to go on Thursday night, Cassidy hinted that the club will have to turn to depth defender Steven Kampfer.