BOSTON — There doesn’t seem to be anybody at TD Garden that doesn’t expect to see Zdeno Chara on the ice Saturday night.
The Bruins captain was hospitalized for dehydration on Friday night, but his teammates all stated Saturday morning that they were confident he would do whatever he needed to do to be in the lineup for a pivotal Game 2 in their opening-round series against Montreal.
Bruins coach Claude Julien added that Chara would indeed play unless the doctors rule otherwise, noting “until our medical staff tells me he can’t go, he’s in tonight.”
The Canadiens are certainly preparing for the game with the assumption that Chara will be lined up opposite them.
“It sounds like he’s going to be in the lineup, so it doesn’t change our game plan,” Montreal forward Travis Moen said. “It’s playoff time. Unless you’ve lost a leg, you’re going to go out and try to play.”
Moen, who called Chara “one of the top defensemen in the league,” doesn’t expect facing Chara to be any less of challenge than usual either.
“He’s a good defenseman, so I don’t know if it’s going to affect him too much,” Moen said. “We’re just going to play our same game plan and try to get pucks behind him and use our speed.”
That kind of approach can take a lot out of a player, especially one as big as the 6-foot-9, 255-pound Chara. At 6-foot-7, 241 pounds, Montreal defenseman Hal Gill can relate, though he wouldn’t commit to bigger players being more susceptible to dehydration.
“I don’t know, I’ve never been small,” joked the former Bruin when asked. But Gill was more serious when talking about the toll the intense competition of the playoffs can take on players.
“It’s hot out there,” Gill said. “It’s intense. It’s a battle every play, so it wears down on you. But that’s the playoffs. Those battles, everything’s heightened. That’s what happens. You can get dehydrated and you can get overworked.”
Not all the Canadiens were as sympathetic. When asked about Chara, forward Michael Cammalleri told reporters, “I’m no MD so I’m not going to be like Mark Recchi and diagnose the other team.” That was an obvious dig at the veteran Bruin who stirred up some controversy last month when he questioned whether the Canadiens had embellished the extent of Max Pacioretty‘s injuries in an attempt to get Chara suspended. Chara hit Pacioretty into the stanchion between the benches at the Bell Centre in the Bruins’ previous game against the Canadiens. Pacioretty suffered a broken vertebrae and concussion and has still not returned to action, but Chara was not fined or suspended on the play.
Now the Bruins may have to play without Chara for a completely different reason, but the Canadiens aren’t counting on it and aren’t changing their approach to Game 2 based on Chara’s availability.
“It doesn’t change any of our preparation,” Montreal coach Jacques Martin said. “We don’t control the opposition. I think we prepare to play the Bruins. We know they’re going to come out hard. They’re a good team and they’ve had an outstanding season. We’ve got to be prepared to weather the storm.”
