Zdeno Chara discusses ‘rough’ start to Bruins’ tenure in 2006, playing future & more at ‘The Tradition’ gala

Over the years, "The Tradition" — the annual sports gala held by The Sports Museum at TD Garden — has recognized many of the sporting giants that have left their mark on the Boston sports landscape.

More often than not, these choice individuals are often many years removed from their playing careers when The Sports Museum comes calling — but such wasn't the case this year with Zdeno Chara, who is now in the midst of his 22nd season in the NHL.

Chara — who was recognized alongside Manny Ramirez, Matt Light, Michelle Kwan, Paul Silas and Ben Crenshaw at the 18th annual gala on Wednesday night — discussed a number of topics on stage during a Q&A segment, ranging from his start in Boston back in 2006, the Bruins' Cup run in 2011 and of course, how much he has left in the tank at 42 years old.

Here are a few of Chara's responses, along with a couple of answers from Bruins legend Johnny Bucyk, who introduced Chara as part of the event.

Q: You're not done yet, are you? 



Chara: "Hopefully not. I enjoy playing, I love the game. Who knows what’s going to happen, obviously, in the future? But right now, I’m enjoying the season we’re having and spending it with my teammates every day. It’s been a lot of fun."

Q: What is it about this city that has helped bring your game to another level? 

Chara: "I think I need to go back to 2006 when I became a free agent and arriving here with wife. … We found something special about this city, right away. My agent (Matt Keator) actually comes from this town, so he told me about it. But I didn’t realize how much sports meant to this city until I came here. Right away, I fell in love with the city and the fans and I can’t be more happy that I’m still here.”

Q: What impresses you about Chara? 

Bucyk: “He’s a good example, especially for the kids. A lot of times, you pick up stuff by watching. You sit back and watch Zdeno and the way he plays, how he takes care of himself, all of the extra work that he does and he looks after the younger players. If somebody gets into trouble, he’s right there to back 'em up. When you look at him — you don’t want to mess with him. … We used to do a lot of talking, not about hockey, so much as other stuff. But he’s always scared of being mad at somebody and hitting 'em — he could do a lot of damage. He really is that strong."

Q: Is it true that you have a folder detailing every offseason workout you've done? 

Chara: "I’ve been very lucky that I have my family history, with my dad being a Greco-Roman wrestler and my mom did some amateur sports events. But my dad obviously was a big influence. He taught me a lot about training, keeping track of where I’m at and what I want to be and how to get to certain goals. So he told me the best way to do that is to keep track of the workouts, making sure you know what you’re doing. Finding the patterns that work for you and it became a habit. At the same time, I was running these workouts and trying to do better the next time or next week and so on. So it was also motivation. But over the course of 25+ years, it’s a big stack of papers."

Q: What were the challenges for a larger player like him breaking into the NHL?

Chara: "Well, I think in the beginning, it was a little bit of an advantage. The league was at a different time and it was much bigger league, much heavier league. Different rules. So I think it played into an advantage for me early on in my career. But as the game progressed and the fans and everyone else wanted to see a faster game with more skill, it became more challenging. You have to make some adjustments and if you didn’t, it was pretty obvious that you weren’t going to stick around. Again, it goes back to the workouts, it goes back to the things I have to change and really make big decisions and adjustments.”

Q: Did you feel pressure coming to Boston in 2006?

Chara: "Of course you feel the pressure. But it’s a good pressure. I enjoy those kind of moments when I had the pressure. It was not easy. I have to admit that coming to a new team, new and high expectations — especially in a sports city, like we talked about. It was rough at the beginning. We were kind of rebuilding the team, trying to find the identity again for the Boston Bruins that these guys (Bucyk & others) created for a long time. So it took a little bit of transition. With the new players coming in, signing some new free agents, new coaching staff, I think we started making progress every year and then after the signing, in four, five years, we were able to hoist the Cup."

Q: What changed during the 2011 Cup Final against the Canucks that allowed Boston to rally from an 0-2 hole?

Chara: "I think the leadership that we had. We had such a tight group and so many great players with experience who had been there before. We had Shawn Thornton, Mark Recchi, we had a coaching staff that really kept us together. But I think the meetings and the talks before those bigs games came from experience from other players that had been there before. There was such a great energy in the room and our focus was basically taking it shift after shift, playing our best and executing and it really played out well. We had a great, mentally strong group and that’s why we were able to overcome those early losses in the series and come back and win.”

Q: What is the toughest thing you've seen Chara do?

Bucyk:  “I think the toughest thing I ever had to do in my career was to quit. When you play hockey, you want to keep doing it. I think Zee feels the same way. He enjoys the game so much and he works so hard and he’s so dedicated — he’s going to last awhile. He’ll last a couple more years if that’s what he wants. He’s probably the only player that I have ever seen that can hardly walk from an injury, and yet he’d go down to the gym to work out. That’s the dedication that he had.”