Bruins Practice Report: Chara Looking Good For Game 1 Of Stanley Cup Final

It appears more and more that Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara will be good to go for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final which begins in Boston on Memorial Day. On Monday morning, Chara had his first full-contact practice with his teammates since not playing in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final last Thursday.

“Chara was good,” head coach Bruce Cassidy told the media after practice Monday. “He went through practice without any issues, so I think tomorrow will be a better day to see if he gets any stiffness or soreness. He’ll get some rest [on Tuesday] and get ready to go for Wednesday.”

The Bruins will have the day off Tuesday as Cassidy alluded to and that should help Chara get even closer to where he needs to be and that’s on the ice for his third trip to the Stanley Cup Final. The 42-year-old defenseman told the media he’s had enough of watching playoff hockey from the press box already.

“I’m taking it one day at a time. [Tuesday] is an off day and then we’ll get back on it Wednesday,” Chara said. “It was hard. I’m not going to lie. You’re watching [a playoff game] and you want to be playing. You want to be involved. For sure it was something where I was feeling that anxiousness to play, but guys did a great job winning the game.”

With Chara back, only fellow rearguard Kevan Miller (lower-body) and forward Chris Wagner (arm) remain out of the lineup, with being listed as out indefinitely.

Here’s what the Bruins lineup looked like at practice Monday:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak

DeBrusk-Krejci-Backes

Johansson-Coyle-Heine

Nordstrom-Kuraly-Acciari

Chara-McAvoy

Krug-Carlo

Grzelcyk-Clifton

Rask

Halak

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