ST. LOUIS — The prognosis was not good for Zdeno Chara, still undergoing treatment by Boston’s medical staff, after taking a deflected puck to the mouth during the middle stanza of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Spitting out blood as he exited the ice at Enterprise Center, Chara’s night was done, with Boston forced to roll out with five defensemen for the second time in three games against the St. Louis Blues.
Any protests by the 42-year-old B’s captain to lace up his skates for the third period were going to fall on deaf ears. But the veteran blueliner did have one request during his brief exchange with Bruce Cassidy.
“Question was asked, he’d like to sit with his teammates,” Cassidy said. "If medically he’s able to do that, that’s fine. Typically these injuries, coaches, at least in our case, we follow the advice of the medical staff 100 percent of the time. And they did in this case, and they said it was okay for him to sit on the bench.”
Much like Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final —
— the 6-foot-9 skater continued to cast a large shadow even when he’s unable to take to the ice.
“(It) just shows his great leadership,”
Brandon Carlo
said of Chara’s presence on the bench. “He’s there to support the guys. Obviously his mouth has some blood, and I don’t know what’s going on in there, but he can barely talk and he’s out there supporting us. Just his leadership is on another level, especially during this final round that I’ve seen. He’s always there for us.”
While Chara will have to undergo further testing on his mouth/jaw upon returning to Boston, Cassidy was mum during his postgame presser when it came to Chara’s status for the next bout against the Blues.
“
We clearly know he got a puck to the face, very uncomfortable, was advised not to return to play, had some stitches, probably some dental work in the near future. ... I don’t know his status for Game 5,” Cassidy said. “Obviously when he gets back home he’ll have to be re-evaluated, see how he feels tomorrow for starters. If we have something for you we’ll give it to you. so I can’t say whether he’ll play in game 5 or not. No idea.”
If Chara isn’t given the green light, a decimated Bruins blue line is going to be stretched to its breaking point — already forced to play without
Matt Grzelcyk
and another regular all postseason in
Kevan Miller.
As was the case in an eventual Game 2 loss, the loss of D-man added up for the remaining blueliners as the game carried on, with
Charlie McAvoy
and
Torey Krug
logging 25:51 and 24:11 of ice time with Chara out of commission.
Without a big body like Chara, the Blues’ efforts at getting inside against the B’s wave of skaters were finally rewarded at 10:38 in the third, as
Ryan O’Reilly
slipped past McAvoy and
Danton Heinen
and knocked a rebound past
Tuukka Rask
at the doorstep for the eventual game-winning tally.
“They worked hard to get inside and if you work hard to get in there enough, the puck finds you, you may get some breaks and score some goals and they did that,” Cassidy said of the Blues. “They did that better than we did tonight, but yeah we got caught there a little bit, unfortunately, and obviously with Zee out, the onus comes on us as a staff.
“They’re young: you have Clifton, McAvoy, Carlo, these kids are young. Torey’s been around,
Johnny Moore
, but they’re not old, grizzled veterans. So we have to coach them up. That’s our challenge going into Game 5. We have to do a better job as a staff.”
The back-up options, if Chara can’t go, leave a bit to be desired. While
Steven Kampfer
scored a goal during his two previous playoff games this spring, the vet would have to be slotting in for Chara as a right-shot defenseman — causing some further shuffling across the rest of the D corps. The other option? A 20-year-old
Urho Vaakanainen
. Not ideal.
Things can change in a hurry during a playoff series, especially on the injury front. Further check-ups could have Chara back in short order — or could doom him to a brutal couple of hours watching his teammates battle without him at TD Garden.
Whichever fate befalls him, there’s no doubting Chara’s presence will be felt by the Bruins. Whether it be positive or negative remains to be seen.
"He's a warrior,”
David Backes
said of Chara. “If there's any chance of him being back, he'll be back, if not, it'll be next man up again whoever that guy is and (he'll) need to fill that role admirably.
“And they're big feet to fill."
