Big “Z” never needed validation outside of how he valued himself.
Though he was 6-foot-9 and solid as a rock, Zdeno Chara never conducted himself like the NHL’s king of the Lowland Gorillas.
Truth be told, Chara was a quiet presence as the captain of the Boston Bruins. Look at some of our other larger-than-life sports heroes over the years. They all carried with them a certain swagger that told you they knew exactly who they were. But Chara really didn’t do that. There was no way he was going to simply be “one of the guys” at 6-foot-9 and sitting in a hockey locker room. But he did try very hard not to draw undue attention to himself.
You wouldn’t see “Z” licking opponents, a la Brad Marchand. I don’t recall Chara slew-footing anyone either, another Marchand stunt that got him suspended.
Chara was a big guy who played the same way. More importantly, he came up big when it mattered most.
Tuesday, Chara joined the likes of Bruins Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Milt Schmidt and Cam Neely in the Hockey Hall of Fame, succeeding on his first try.
If there’s one lasting image of Chara for me, it’s the night in June 2011 that the Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 39 years, beating the Vancouver Canucks in a seven-game series. As captain, it was Chara’s privilege to hoist the cup over his head and skate around the ice.
When Chara was given the cup and when it was resting in his hands, arms over his head, “Z” gave out a scream that lasted almost a full minute. This wasn’t the type of bellicose posturing you see some competitors do. This was almost like a cathartic holler, as if he was finally getting to exorcise every demon, every defeat (including letting the Philadelphia Flyers come back from a 3-0 hole in the previous season’s playoffs).
There was just so much to Chara as a player. For starters, he was a lockdown defenseman. Though he had other skills, and was called upon to use them often, he never forgot who he was.
He was a defenseman.
But he let his presence be known whenever he stepped out onto the ice. He wasn’t a fighter (he didn’t have to be, did he?), but he also wasn’t afraid to throw down if goaded or when it came to playing policeman.
There was a playoff series (of course, against the Montreal Canadiens) when Boston’s power play was going nowhere in a hurry. He usually sat out on the point, just waiting to unleash that monster shot of his. But his coach, Claude Julien, decided to put Chara in front of the net.
There were just too many structural deficiencies with Boston’s puck-moving at the time. You can’t do much if you can’t move the puck. So Julien’s move didn’t work as well as it could have. All I will say is that “Z” had no trouble standing his ground, because no one wanted to mess with him.
As for his popularity in Boston, there was no shortage of Chara fans. There wasn’t much to dislike. I’d say he was the best kind of teammate in that he was front and center to do whatever the Bruins needed. Plus, he was a pleasant guy around the sports media.
But he played in an era with two transcendent civic icons, Tom Brady and David Ortiz. While “Z” was certainly an elite talent, I couldn’t describe him that way. So as good as he was, he suffered by comparison. But if he’d spent his best years in Ottawa, which is where he was before the Bruins snatched him up as a free agent in 2006, he’d be a Canadian national hero now.
I’d say few NHL players deserve this free trip to Toronto later this year more than Chara. He was the definition of steady, dependable and, most of all, an elite player.
Congratulations, ‘Z.’
