Wednesday's Game Seven loss in Montreal was the 1273rd game of Zdeno Chara's career. It was the final game in a season 15 years removed from the one that contained his debut. In those 15 years Big Z has been a huge role player on every team he has played for and yet, as the 37 year old defencemen recovers from a finger fracture suffered in Game Seven it is time to ask the question: it is time that the Bruins move on from their monster captain.
Since he was signed to the Bruins back in the summer of 2006, Chara has lived out his behemoth 37 million dollar 5 year contract with the team and signed an even larger 7 year 45 million dollar contract with Boston. As of now he has played 8 seasons with Boston and if the Bruins choose to honor the contract or at least keep him on the team he will be in Beantown for 4 more years at the very least. But is that for the best?
Chara provides a huge presence on the back end especially when games turn physical. He is a game manager as well who can orchestrate the movements of everyone on the ice and put the puck exactly where he wants to. Furthermore, Chara can play a key role on the power play or in any offensive situation for that matter whenever he is asked to. To understand the brutal extent of Chara's offensive perfection from the blue line, one must look only to the statistics he has accumulated. In 8 seasons with Boston, Chara has ripped 104 shots past opposing goaltenders the large majority of which were scored using his world best 108 mile per hour slap shot. On top of the goals he scored that were untouched, countless Chara shots were shot on goal and either tipped or rebounded off of a goaltender and then punched home. His 239 assists since 2006-2007 are the best among Bruins blue liners during that time period. Also what cannot be overlooked is the fact that the mighty Zdeno Chara has been one of the most important Bruins in terms of ice time in almost 2 decades routinely shouldering close to 30 minutes of ice time per regular season game and closer to 40 during the playoffs.
But as he has aged, Chara's production in terms of statistics and defensive presence has declined greatly. After logging back to back seasons involving 15 or more goals from 2007 to 2009, Chara had, before this season seen 3 of 4 seasons end with less than 12 goals to his name. But even though this 2013-2014 season re-upped Chara's goal scoring reputation with its 17 scores by the big man, 10 of those goals came on the power play where Chara would often score from positions mere feet from the net. In the past few years Chara has drifted ever so slightly away from the slap shot that made him great relying more on a more accurate but less powerful wrist shot to get his lessening pile of goals.
So why this decline?
I think the answer is apparent to all who are familiar with Zdeno Chara's history. In just 3 years he will turn 40; that is very old for hockey players. But even at his age, Chara's ice time has not declined at all and so, it has become widely apparent that he is beginning to feel the effects of fatigue.
Chara however, insists that he is as vibrant as ever and it a-okay with his workload.
"I felt fine, physically and mentally," Chara said. "Obviously, losing Dennis and Adam throughout the regular season maybe put more of a load on certain guys, and for sure maybe even on me. But it's not something that we were not handling, or we were getting caught off guard. It's just the way it happens sometimes. You lose guys throughout the season, and you have to pick up more minutes. It was a great chance for our guys to step up and play well, and they did play very well."
Claude Jullian had similar words proclaiming that we are not to underestimate the veteran. He was asked about whether or not he thought Chara was tired at the end of Game Seven and quickly responded with words that solidified his opinion.
"Anybody who thinks he was tired at the end, you're wrong," Julien said. "He wasn't tired and he was fresh and we shouldn't underestimate Zdeno because of his age, because he's a real fine-tuned athlete and he's capable of taking a lot. He takes good care of himself."
Tuukka Rask however was more cautious with his words about Chara's ice time. He hinted that the time has come for the Bruins organization to take a step back with the frequency to which they are deploying Chara.
"Well, he's not going to get younger, but he works so hard to stay in shape that I don't think the conditioning is going to be an issue," Rask said. "But when your body gets older, he can't be logging 30 minutes a night five years from now, obviously. Maybe he has to realize that playing less minutes might be [to] his advantage at some point. That's going to be tough for him because, knowing the person he is, he wants to be out there the whole time, but I think it's good to have these young D and them learning from him and growing into a role that Z doesn't have to play half an hour, 35 minutes every night. He can trust five other guys out there."
No matter how well you take care of yourself, Zdeno Chara's body is 40 years old and at 40 years old things begin to break down. If the Bruins want to make their star captain last much longer, they have to recognize the need to rest him. If they do not feel that they can tell him to take a seat, if Chara is unwilling to do so, it is time to move on.
It is as simple as that.
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