{"id":410468,"date":"2026-01-16T08:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T08:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/410468\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T08:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T08:31:11","slug":"bruins-retire-no-33-to-honor-former-captain-zdeno-chara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/410468\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins retire No. 33 to honor former captain Zdeno Chara"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Bruins retired No. 33 on Thursday ahead of the team’s game against the Seattle Kraken, honoring former captain Zdeno Chara. <\/p>\n

Chara spent 14 years in Boston, all as captain, and led the Bruins to their most recent Stanley Cup in 2011. <\/p>\n

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year.<\/p>\n

Chara is the 13th player in franchise history to have his number retired. <\/p>\n

His No. 33 now hangs alongside Raymond Bourque’s No. 77, which was retired in 2001. <\/p>\n

During the ceremony, Chara said it felt special to be back in Boston.<\/p>\n

“I’m blown away. It feels surreal, but I’ll tell you, I feel so good to be on the ice again,” Chara said. <\/p>\n

>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go<\/a> <<<\/p>\n

He added that signing with the Bruins in 2006 was the best decision he ever made. <\/p>\n

Bruins fans saluted Big Zee, thanking him for all he’s done for the team. <\/p>\n

“I was very close to getting emotional, especially when the fans started chanting thank you. I almost cried down there. I was very close,” Chara said. <\/p>\n

Members of the 2011 Stanley Cup carried the banner onto the ice, and Chara’s children raised it into the rafters at TD Garden. <\/p>\n

Despite Chara’s number being retired, his work continues with the Bruins as an advisor and a mentor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Bruins retired No. 33 on Thursday ahead of the team’s game against the Seattle Kraken, honoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5099],"tags":[51649,26933,154,95,5132,530,811,17298,51580,51579,4179,654,5,1371,1805,4,4677,51648,234,7957,130,11324,3183,4079],"class_list":["post-410468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-bruins","tag-13th-player","tag-app","tag-boston","tag-boston-bruins","tag-bostonbruins","tag-bruins","tag-captain","tag-chara","tag-fame-last-year","tag-former-captain-zdeno-chara","tag-franchise-history","tag-game","tag-hockey","tag-ice","tag-massachusetts","tag-nhl","tag-no","tag-recent-stanley-cup","tag-seattle-kraken","tag-td-garden","tag-team","tag-thursday","tag-update","tag-zdeno-chara"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115903848961248694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}