Pre-Game Talk: GAME #20 - Zdeno Chara will not play in Bruins’ game vs. Ottawa

[Fenway]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/b...game-ottawa/Dl65xIw7NvcMfaaI3QnubM/story.html

Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara will not play Thursday against Ottawa because of a lower-body injury. Chara played just one shift in the second period of Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to St. Louis.

This will be the first game Chara will miss this season. In 19 games, Chara has one goal and five assists while averaging a team-high 22:41 of ice time per outing.

In all likelihood, he is doubtful for Friday’s home game against Calgary as well, according to Claude Julien.

Here’s how the Bruins skated at Wednesday’s practice:

Forward lines

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak

Matt Beleskey-David Krejci-David Backes

Ryan Spooner-Riley Nash-Austin Czarnik

Tim Schaller/Sean Kuraly-Dominic Moore-Jimmy Hayes

Defensive pairings

John-Michael Liles-Brandon Carlo

Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid

Joe Morrow-Kevan Miller

Colin Miller

Goalies

Tuukka Rask

Zane McIntyre

Click to read more...

 

[Sheppy]

Miller gets back, Chara gets hurt. This damn team has some tough luck with injuries... seems like when everyone is about to get healthy, someone goes down with injury.

 

[ODAAT]

Haggs saying next two games, could be a lot worse if accurate

http://www.csnne.com/boston-bruins/zdeno-chara-out-at-least-one-game-for-boston-bruins

 

[Estlin]

Just as I predicted, Liles goes on the first pairing with Carlo.

 

[BMC]

 

[Glove Malfunction]

Those defensive pairings don't really inspire a lot of confidence.

 

[NDiesel]

Those defensive pairings don't really inspire a lot of confidence.

No combo of those 7 dmen is going to look very good.

 

[Hali33]

Defense looks rough as ****.

 

[VanIsle]

Uh oh, things will get real ugly real fast if he is out for an extended period of time unless Carlo is the new Bourque this team is in trouble.

Pastrnak looking like he is back so that is great but losing Chara probably behind Rask in terms of importance to this team is frightening, hopefully I am wrong in thinking the severity of the injury, but things don't look good.

 

[Bread and Circuses]

“We’ve got to be smarter when we’re down a man like that, especially a big part of the team like [Chara] is,†said David Backes. “Hopefully it’s very temporary and he’ll be back in short order, but if not, we’ve got to have different guys pick up the slack and move forward. He’s obviously an awesome player, but we’re going to have injuries to guys and we need to spread the wealth and all shoulder a little bit more load, and find ways to win games.â€

David Backes appears to be a fantastic locker room guy.

 

[Heisenberg77]

Anybody think Tuukka gets the day off tomorrow? I'd say highly likely. Is Khudobin ready to travel/play?

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Liles on top pairing. Not good.

This team will need extra effort to win.

 

[bob27]

Welp, time to panic.

 

[Ladyfan]

Hope big Z recovers soon. He has looked so good this year

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

Are people *really* surprised that our 39 year old D man playing over 22 physical mins a game is hurt? Guys he's not just going to be injured this time around. He's going to be hurt 1-2 more times this year, I'd bet any sum on that. It's just too many minutes even for that elite body. By 39 you're supposed to hopefully be playing 15 mins a game, maybe 16. The idea that we built a house of cards on top of a 39 year old playing 22 mins is like a hockey ponzi scheme. Even Liles who turns 36 tomorrow should be out to pasture soon. Chris Philips was basically done at 36, and we want Liles to carry the team? Like I said, zero surprise.

 

[Pia8988]

Are people *really* surprised that our 39 year old D man playing over 22 physical mins a game is hurt? Guys he's not just going to be injured this time around. He's going to be hurt 1-2 more times this year, I'd bet any sum on that. It's just too many minutes even for that elite body. By 39 you're supposed to hopefully be playing 15 mins a game, maybe 16. The idea that we built a house of cards on top of a 39 year old playing 22 mins is like a hockey ponzi scheme. Even Liles who turns 36 tomorrow should be out to pasture soon. Chris Philips was basically done at 36, and we want Liles to carry the team? Like I said, zero surprise.

Good to see every single player in their age group are the exact same in durability.

 

[BruinDust]

Are people *really* surprised that our 39 year old D man playing over 22 physical mins a game is hurt? Guys he's not just going to be injured this time around. He's going to be hurt 1-2 more times this year, I'd bet any sum on that. It's just too many minutes even for that elite body. By 39 you're supposed to hopefully be playing 15 mins a game, maybe 16. The idea that we built a house of cards on top of a 39 year old playing 22 mins is like a hockey ponzi scheme. Even Liles who turns 36 tomorrow should be out to pasture soon. Chris Philips was basically done at 36, and we want Liles to carry the team? Like I said, zero surprise.

And Ray Bourque was a 2nd team all-star at age 41.

What's your point? You can cite tons of examples of guys breaking down post-35, and tons of examples of guys doing just fine.

I didn't realize every hockey player's genetics, build, injury history, etc. was exactly the same.

My bad.

 

[JOKER 192]

I'm not sure what has to happen for people to figure it out about Chara. He's been injured every year for the last 4 years , it's very likely to keep happening.

This is going to be messy . Carlo can hold his own but I'm not sure a 19 year old is going to carry his partner as well. Liles is 3 pair material and so are the rest of the them.

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

Guys, Chara plays a ridiculously physical brand of hockey and has since the start. The miles on his body are nothing like that of a Bourque.

Liles meanwhile has had an unrelenting amount of injuries in his career. Of course you know this, I'm not teaching you anything. As a result he starting slowing down dramatically years ago. A lot of guys in exactly his level of play hung it up at this point. He's found a job in Boston because....I think you know why.

 

[Pia8988]

His level of play? When did Chara morph into Matt Bartkowski?

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

His level of play? When did Chara morph into Matt Bartkowski?

That sentence is clearly in reference to Liles...and Liles is what he is. Again you've seen our advanced stats for the blueliners this year. I'm not teaching you anything about Liles. It's that bad. That said, go nuts if you want: http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Tough to generalize Chara as injury prone. By that standard any player is.

Injury prone is more reflected in Andrew Ference tearing his groin every year for five years.

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

Tough to generalize Chara as injury prone. By that standard any player is.

Injury prone is more reflected in Andrew Ference tearing his groin every year for five years.

I wouldn't say that Chara had an injury prone career at all actually. He was extremely durable.

I'm saying if you're a betting man (and I am), you're a fool to bet against injuries for a 39 year old playing 22 shut down minutes. That's just a bad bet, period. It's weird people are taking this extremely personally. I'm a HUGE Chara fan, if you search my posts I'm one of the people saying he's gotta retire here. I'm just also totally realistic about what happens when you give a guy his age the 1D slot and those minutes. If the fate of your club relies and that, you're up against it.

 

[northeastern]

Liles on top pairing. Not good.

This team will need extra effort to win.

Yup the offense is going up need to play complete games and a lot of pressure will be on the top two lines to lock it down defensively and add offensively.

Wonder what game Rask sits

 

[Glove Malfunction]

Tough to generalize Chara as injury prone. By that standard any player is.

Injury prone is more reflected in Andrew Ference tearing his groin every year for five years.

Not that I'm defending my binky (OK, I am! ), but once Ference had surgery on his oft-torn groin, he never had an issue with it again.

I just hope this isn't a recurrence of Chara's knee injury from two years ago.