Bruins legend Zdeno Chara will go down as one of hockey’s ultimate gamers.
And with the Stanley Cup-winning captain enshrined as a Hockey Hall of Famer this past week in Toronto, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney took time to give additional insight into one of the most insane Chara stories.
It was during the 2019 Stanley Cup Final that Chara took a puck to the face in Game 4. The shot left Chara with a broken jaw. But that wasn’t going to stop him from suiting up for the Bruins. That much we already knew, of course, as Chara suited up for the remainder of the series. But Chara’s availability was something that wasn’t ever up for debate, according to Sweeney.
“Visiting him in the hospital after he broke his jaw when we were in ’19. Couldn’t talk, and all he wrote was, ‘I’m playing,’” Sweeney said ahead of Chara going into the HHoF. “You really think about those moments of perseverance of a singular person trying to will everybody else to do it like he does.”
It was known that Chara couldn’t talk when the Bruins returned to Boston from St. Louis, with Chara instead providing a written statement to the media regarding his status for the game and remainder of the series.
Chara’s status as one of the toughest men in hockey was never in question, but it’s stories like that that only add to the mystique of one of the most impactful and interesting defensemen of the modern era.
The Bruins will raise Chara’s No. 33 to the TD Garden rafters on Jan. 15, 2026.