McDonald: Bruins' Chara adopts new skating style to help prolong career

If skating is considered a science, then Zdeno Chara is Albert Einstein.

We’re not talking about the theory of relativity here, but Chara was smart enough to realize that he needed to become a better skater in order to prolong his hockey career past the age of 40. The game is younger, faster and in order to keep up, the captain of the Boston Bruins needed to adapt.

His new stride was evident on the first shift of his first preseason game on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden. At first I thought I was imagining it. So, I watched, and watched, and watched his every stride.

How would it be possible for a 6-foot-9, 250-pound man on skates to change his skating style and create a longer stride after all these years in the league? It was mesmerizing. So, after the game I asked him if his skating was different.

His answer: “Yes. Yes it is.”

Instead of his typical offseason strength workout, he focused more on his skating. Most players take a few weeks off after the season to rest and rehab their bodies before starting their offseason workouts. Some don’t start skating until late July or early August.

Chara was only off the ice for one week after the team’s first-round exit to the Ottawa Senators before he started skating again. He worked with four skating coaches – two in Boston (Kim Brandvold and Adam Nicholas) and two in Slovakia.

He’s improved his balance. He’s lower to the ice and has a longer stride. When he’s engaged in a tighter play, he’s a bit more upright and his strides are shorter. He improved his initial push off, which helps increase the length of his stride. All the power-skating drills have also helped his glide.

“There are certain areas I definitely feel a difference,” explained Chara. “Getting out of the turns quicker, or getting up the ice faster.”

When he first entered the NHL with the Islanders in 1997, many scouts wondered how long he would last in the league because skating wasn’t one of his strengths. To his credit, Chara has worked his entire career to improve that skill. He’s made significant progress.

“It has improved dramatically,” he said. “It’s a game where you have to be able to skate a lot and handle the quick transitions.”

He’ll admit the technology of the skates has helped too. His skates are designed so that every push goes right to the blade. His size 11 5/8 skates are also lighter. As he explained, there’s so much more to skating than most people know especially if you’re not a natural.

Chara doesn’t improvise. What he’ll do is reflect, research, study and ultimately adapt to a changing and faster game. If he didn’t, it’s possible he would have been out of the league by this point of his career.

“It’s just like life, you have to adapt to different things and the changes that life provides,” he said. “It’s the same thing in hockey. If you want to stay in the league for a long time, you have to be able to make changes and adapt. To have to be able to make those adjustments and if you do, you’ll be able to play for a long time. If you don’t then you’ll be replaced.”

It was Dec. 22, 2007 and David Backes was a 23-year-old forward for the St. Louis Blues. It was the first time he was playing against the Bruins in his career and the game was in Boston. It was also the first time he was on the ice against Chara.

“I was petrified,” Backes said. “Coming from Minnesota and playing college hockey you play against bigger guys but nothing that’s scary big. Then his reputation and stories precede him how he’s chiseled, mean and plays with an edge. It was like, ‘Oh, boy. Here we go.’ I’m a young kid in the league and I know I have to get to the hard areas and I can’t back down from anybody. I’ve got to establish myself here, so if I get a chance at the big guy I’ve got to take a run at the big guy no matter how hard it hurts.”

That December night Chara was 30 and most thought that would be his peak performance, especially for a defenseman.

“I don’t remember a deficiency in his game at the time,” admitted Backes.

Because of Chara’s size and reach are two of his strengths, opponents attempt to take advantage of his skating in order to beat him. Players understand they can’t beat him physically, so they don’t go for his body too often. They attempt to get close to him and get to his hands to make him vulnerable and try to separate him from the puck.

In order to fend off the opposition, Chara needed to improve his skating.

“Slower? Older? It doesn’t matter because his adaptations are why he’s been able to play for so long,” Backes said. “He’s an intelligent hockey mind, who loves the game, thinks the game, a student of the game and he communicates.

“He’s never been fun to play against and he’s still not fun to play against – even in practice. Does he get beat in a foot race now and then? Yeah, but everybody does,” Backes said.

Even when he’s skating backward, it takes a lot to get past him with the puck. Most players try to beat Chara one-on-one by putting the puck under his stick in front of him. Then a player must go around him before getting past him.

“You’ve got to beat him three times to get through him and around him,” explained Backes. “And, it’s not an easy task just to beat him once.”

Backes doesn’t study skating, or examine other players’ strides, but he has noticed Chara’s skating has improved over the years. His contract expires at the end of this season and he’s already discussing an extension with Bruins general manager Don Sweeney.

Age doesn’t matter to Chara and he wants to play as long as he’s healthy. In order to play well into his 40s, he’ll continually need to work on his skating. He doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that.

Here's a video of Chara skating at a recent practice.