Zdeno Chara’s Leadership Needed More Than Ever
The Boston Bruins have had one of their biggest turnovers in recent memory. Out went Milan Lucic, Dougie Hamilton, Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, and Carl Soderberg. In came Matt Beleskey, Jimmy Hayes, Matt Irwin, Colin Miller, and (still haven’t figured this one out yet) Zac Rinaldo. The Bruins parted ways with Peter Chiarelli (who was almost instantly snapped up by the Edmonton Oilers) and promoted Don Sweeney to general manager.
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That kind of turnover means instilling these new Bruins in how things are done in Boston.(As long as they only mention last season’s performance as a cautionary tale.) That means the Bruins leadership, especially their captain will have to have a strong season. That will be an awful lot to ask of Zdeno Chara.
Last year was a tough year for the Bruins captain. Chara had a career worst twenty point season for the Black and Gold. Granted, he lost nineteen games with a damaged ACL in his left knee (an injury he admits wasn’t fully healed). Even when Chara came back just before Christmas, he wasn’t anywhere near one hundred percent. That left Chara as a slower and less intimidating version of himself.
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Chara was still asked to play his usual minutes per game (nearly 25) and it led to a tired and hurt player making mistakes that cost the Bruins goals and points. Just enough points to see the Bruins not reach the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. Now the Bruins are refitting, and the B’s will need to look to Chara and their leadership group (Chris Kelly, David Krejci, and Patrice Bergeron) more than ever.
The extra long vacation can only help the Bruins. Zdeno Chara will certainly train like a fiend during the offseason. (Shawn Thornton often marveled about how severs Chara’s training and conditioning regimen was.) He will hopefully return healthy and at one hundred percent. (The same goes for David Krejci, Kevan Miller, and Dennis Seidenberg.) The Boston Bruins will need strong leadership to banish the memory of last year’s failings, and that means they’ll need to look to Chara to move forward next season.