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Boston Bruins: Five players set to hit big milestones in 2019-20 season

By Luke Ryan

TORONTO, ON - APRIL 21: Torey Krug #47 of the Boston Bruins celebrates his goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs with teammates Patrice Bergeron #37 and Brad Marchand during the first period during Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Scotiabank Arena on April 21, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 21: Torey Krug #47 of the Boston Bruins celebrates his goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs with teammates Patrice Bergeron #37 and Brad Marchand during the first period during Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Scotiabank Arena on April 21, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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BOSTON, MA - JUNE 6: Zdeno Chara #33 of the Boston Bruins during the playing of the National Anthem prior to the start of the game against the St Louis Blues during Game Five of the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the TD Garden on June 6, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA – JUNE 6: Zdeno Chara #33 of the Boston Bruins during the playing of the National Anthem prior to the start of the game against the St Louis Blues during Game Five of the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the TD Garden on June 6, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Zdeno Chara

Current Boston Bruins captain, Zdeno Chara will, barring significant injury, hit 1000 regular season games with the organisation this season. Essentially, in all likelihood, he will hit 1000 games as even a broken jaw wasn’t seen by Chara to be significant enough to miss more than one play-off game this season just passed.

It’s also reasonable to consider that he is easily second only to Ray Bourque in terms of the number of regular season games he’s played as captain of the Boston Bruins team. Given it’d likely take three full seasons more to overtake Bourque, you’d have to expect the 43 year-old defenseman to settle for second in this case.

Right now, Chara stands at 955 regular season games as the Boston Bruins captain, he should easily manage 45 games this season, given his career-low was 25 games in his 1997-98 rookie year with the New York Islanders.

Last season (ignoring the lock-out shortened season) was the lowest number of regular season games he has played in basically two decades. Even then, it was still a 62 game season followed by a further 23 play-off games.

Zdeno Chara’s longevity speaks for itself; he provides a great role model to the younger defensemen graduating through the Boston Bruins system. The likes of Charlie McAvoy aren’t half the player they are without his mentoring on the ice.

When he does hit that 1000 game milestone, it’ll be a momentous occasion and the Boston Bruins organisation hopefully celebrates it as such.

Perhaps fittingly, the earliest he can achieve the milestone assuming he doesn’t miss a game is Friday, January 10th at TD Garden against the Winnipeg Jets. Game 1001 as a Boston Bruins player would then fall against the team that drafted him, the New York Islanders on their home ice.

Having slowed down and been caught out from time-to-time, this may be the last go around for Zdeno Chara. It’s fair to think his number 33 isn’t far off hanging in the TD Garden rafters and it’ll be a surefire testament to his longevity.

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