‘That was his superpower’
Zdeno Chara was back in Black and Gold when he addressed members of the media on Friday afternoon at Warrior Ice Arena.
The Boston Bruins announced Thursday they brought Chara back into the fold to serve as the club’s hockey operations advisor and mentor. In the role, the former Bruins captain will advise both players and staff with a focus on relationship building and fostering strong communication.
“I’m excited. I’m honored to be back with the team and working with the coaching staff and management and players,” Chara told reporters, per team-provided video. “It’s definitely something new. Something that I know I can bring a lot, but at the same time, I’ll be learning a lot, too.”
During his tenure with the Bruins, Chara played with new Boston head coach Marco Sturm from 2006 to 2010. Sturm saw the impact Chara had on re-establishing the culture in the B’s locker room and looks forward to the 2011 Stanley Cup champion having the same effect in the room this season.
“He loves the game. He loves the Bruins culture,” Stum said, per team-provided video. “We want to take advantage (of that). It’s nice to have him back.
“He set the tone pretty much starting in practice. You still want to have fun, whatever, but when it’s time to go and time to work, you have to get the job done. And he was the big leader in that, and (Patrice) Bergeron and Sturm, you name it, all those other guys, we followed him.”
Sturm continued: “I think that is the message he wants to send to (Charlie) McAvoy, (David Pastrnak), and all these guys. Sometimes they get sick of me and sick of whatever — but I think he will be just another voice in our room that will push these guys forward.”
McAvoy spent the first three seasons of his NHL career skating on Boston’s top-defensive pairing alongside Chara — he is thrilled to have the 6-foot-9 defenseman in an official role with the club.
“Guys like that don’t grow on trees,” McAvoy said, per team-provided video. “The experience that he has, the person he is, the leader, to have him here is going to be extremely impactful on all of us.
“Every day, he brought it. Every single day. He led by example, so he was the hardest-working guy out there. He’s in the gym early and he’s doing more. He’s here early and leaves late. You just saw what it meant to him and that was how he led. You saw just how he prepared, how he treated the game, what it meant to him, how he treated everybody around (him): That was his superpower.”
McAvoy continued: “He helped me grow a ton. I did not come here a finished product. I was certainly still developing and he’s responsible for a lot of that, for helping me realize how important the defensive side of the game was. He helped me grow so much, on both sides really, just by learning how to play a responsible game. Which is how you play in this league for a long time. It’s how you become reliable to your teammates. And in a way, it’s how you lead.”
Pastrnak may not have manned the blue line with Chara, but the prolific goal scorer still learned a lot from the big man.
“It is so simple with Zdeno; he has so much to offer. Obviously, personally, and all the experience he had as a player. We are very happy as the players,” he told reporters Friday. “I think every single young player in the locker room should recognize what kind of person we have in this room and use him. He’s here for us. He has so much to offer, and we can learn so much from him.”
Chara hung up his skates three years ago after playing in 1,680 NHL games with the Bruins, New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators and Washington Capitals. He donned the Spoked-B for 14 seasons in Boston after signing with the Black and Gold as a free agent in 2006 and became the Original Six franchise’s 18th captain. He served as captain for his entire tenure in Boston.
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