21 years might separate Zdeno Chara & Charlie McAvoy, but mutual respect takes precedence for top D pairing

There’s one major rule for anyone sandwiched into a media scrum with Zdeno Chara.

Don’t use the term “rookie.”

Through an NHL career that has spanned 21 years, the future Hall of Famer has refrained from using such a term — and will be quick to offer a polite correction if the expression is tossed out during a line of questioning, preferring the term, “first-year player” instead.

Now 42 years old, Chara is one of the elder statesmen in the NHL, with Pittsburgh’s Matt Cullen standing as the lone player in the league that eclipses the Bruins' defenseman in age.

The veteran has spent much of the later parts of his illustrious career ushering in the next wave of B's blueliners, most of the time paired up with one of these “first-year players.”

Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy can speak from experience. A pair of defensemen in the midst of their third and second full seasons in the NHL, respectively, both Carlo and McAvoy both found themselves as regulars on Boston’s top defensive pair alongside Chara during their first NHL campaigns in 2016 and 2017.  

Over the last three full seasons, no players have slotted in next to Chara on the blue line more than Carlo (1,672 5v5 minutes played with Chara) and McAvoy (1,449 5v5 min.). Quite the combination, to say the least, given the fact that a 20-year gap separates Boston’s captain from his two regular D-pairing partners.

It’s by design from the Bruins’ coaching staff, with future cornerstones of the franchise getting a crash course up in the NHL ranks alongside a future Hall of Famer.

"I think Z is a mentor, saw it with Carlo the year before and Charlie is receptive to that,” Bruce Cassidy said. "If you play to your strength but take what the veteran players tell you and still play your game, and that's what happened to Carlo. He deferred a little more, but he still played his shutdown game. Different player than Charlie, but it worked out well the year before and that's why, at the start of the year, well, do we go back to Zee and Carlo? Maybe Charlie, we'll move him somewhere else. But I think it's worked out really well for us."

It doesn’t look like the pairing of McAvoy-Chara is going to be split up anytime soon.

So far this postseason, Boston’s top pairing has been out for 239 minutes of 5v5 TOI together — during which the opposition has only managed to score five goals, including zero from the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.

Whereas the early stages of the partnership primarily featured Chara clearing up any miscues caused by a 19-year-old McAvoy during the 2017-18 season, things have hit a bit more of an equilibrium so far during this playoff run.  

“I think they compliment each other,” Cassidy said. “I think at first, when Charlie came into the league, he was leaning on Zee for a lot of his ability to put out fires that maybe Charlie created, because he didn't know the league as well. What he could get away with, and what he couldn't...

“And then, as it went along, it tilts the other way too. Now Zee is relying on Charlie some nights when they're trying to play behind Zee, trying to have a good gap and chip it behind him. Charlie will break the puck out and help him with that, so he's not always turning to face the glass. So I think they’ve evolved into knowing what the strength of each other is and allowing them to play to that.”

For Chara, the chemistry he’s been able to develop with both McAvoy and Carlo is not centered on a mentor-student role that most would envision from a pairing with such a drastic discrepancy in terms of age. As he’s harped on for years now, “rookies” don’t exist from his viewpoint, nor will younger players in Boston’s locker room get knocked for the lack of experience that they may carry with them.

“Age doesn’t really separate the conversations or personalities,” Chara said. “I’ve been saying for a long time, we are treating everybody the same way, no matter if (you’re) 18 or 40 or somebody is (playing in their) 1000th game or playing his first game. We treat each other with respect and the same way as everybody else in the locker room.

“I’ve said it many times. Since a young age, I didn’t like the separation between young players and older players, players who have accomplished something, players that are coming into the league. I don’t like to to use the word rookie. They are our teammates. I just don’t like to separate. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. Once you’re a team, you’re a team and regardless of the age or accomplishments. We have to treat each other with respect.”

Chara’s efforts to treat veteran and newcomers all the same hasn’t gone unnoticed by McAvoy. Chara might view him as a teammate more than a simple understudy, but McAvoy has often spoken at length about the role Boston’s captain has had in shaping him into the player he is now.

It's an unconventional mix, for sure. But it's the perfect formula for a Bruins team on the cusp on a Stanley Cup.

“Every day, there are certain things you see or you notice and kind of reminds you of why he’s had the career he’s had. You don't know what hard work is really until you've seen him work," McAvoy said of Chara back on March 23. “I'm very lucky. I don’t take it for granted to be able to play with a guy like that."