It’s not his proudest stat as an NHL player.

Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara is 0-3 in Game 7 situations — two losses with Ottawa (vs. New Jersey and Toronto) and one with Boston (last season against Montreal) — and he knows it. That’s why he doesn’t recall any words of wisdom he received before those deciding games.

“It’s been a long time. When you lose those Game 7′s, you don’t try to memorize them. You try to forget about them,” Chara said today after an off-ice workout in preparation for Game 7 of the Bruins’ Eastern Conference semifinal series with Carolina at TD Banknorth Garden.

Had the pregame speech, or any other number of circumstances been different, maybe Chara wouldn’t have a goose egg in the Game 7 ‘W’ column. He’s not alone among Bruins players who’ve suffered more defeat than victory in Game 7s, as only winger Mark Recchi (4-2) and goaltender Manny Fernandez (1-0) are better than .500 in Game 7s. (more…)

Hooking was the call that shocked Boston.

RALEIGH — The 1-on-1 battle within the Boston-Carolina war between Norris Trophy finalist Zdeno Chara and All-Star center Eric Staal was being waged at a fever pitch in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series tonight at RBC Center, as the teams started the third period tied 1-1.

In the last period’s opening 65 second second, Staal chased a puck toward the side wall in the Boston zone and Chara chased after him. All of a sudden the referee’s arm went up and when the Bruins touched the puck Chara went to the box. It was a call that could only be described as marginal.

Just 1:45 later, the Hurricanes crushed the Bruins’ hopes of evening the series at 2 with a power-play goal by Jussi Jokinen.

“Honestly, I went after the puck and the referee all of a sudden called a penalty. So you can’t change it now,” said a surprised Chara. (more…)

RALEIGH — The way the Boston Bruins’ Game 3 loss to Carolina Wednesday night in the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the two clubs went down, captain Zdeno Chara’s poor clearing pass that was intercepted and turned into the winning goal in overtime was just the last of many miscues the club produced on the night.

Chara was at the end of a shift and the Bruins were in the midst of changing lines, but to his credit the Norris Trophy finalist didn’t want to use any excuses when explaining himself after his team’s morning skate in preparation for Game 4 at RBC Center today.

The Bruins trail the series, 2-1.

“It’s something that I need to bear down more on the puck a little bit better,” he said. “It’s unfortunate it ended up in our own net. But like I said, it’s behind us and it’s over.” (more…)

Chara

RALEIGH — Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara is a minus-4 over the last two games, both losses, for his club in this Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Heading into Game 4 of the series tomorrow night, however, head coach Claude Julien is certain we’ll again see the better side of his captain.

“He’s fine. He’s a leader. He’s a guy that will take things hard,” said Julien today with his team down 1-2 in the series. “He’s hard on himself, always has been. But he’s also a guy that’s capable of turning the page and saying, ‘you know what? I’m the captain here, I have to lead by example and that’s what I’m going to do. And that’s what Zdeno is going to do for our team tomorrow – I have no doubt about that.” (more…)

RALEIGH — It’s time to cue the cheesy Bonnie Tyler music in Bruins Land.

The Boston Bruins need a hero and he has to be strong, and he has to be … well, he has to not turn the puck over, first and foremost. If you watched the Bruins lose, 3-2, in overtime in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at RBC Center, you must be wondering what sport the East’s top-seeded club is playing right now — because it sure isn’t hockey.

Now, for maybe the first time all season, the team that was only mildly challenged for first place in the conference and overcame injuries (but half as many as some teams that lost legions of players to different maladies) is in a hole that they’ll only be able to dig out of with some iron will and dirt-tough determination that we really don’t know if this club possesses.

While the Hurricanes were a far superior product for 100 of the last 120 minutes of this series than the Bruins, Boston has really rolled over and let Carolina do anything it wants. All three Carolina goals were result of Boston turnovers, including the game-winner — a play that started with an awful breakout pass by Zdeno Chara that went to Hurricanes speedster Sergei Samsonov. (more…)

Chara

Boston Bruins star defenseman Zdeno Chara had a rough night Sunday in his team’s 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the clubs.

The captain was on the ice for all three goals against, and was victimized twice on Matt Cullen’s shorthanded goal — once when Chad LaRose intercepted his cross-ice pass and once on the coverage skating back to prevent the goal. But Chara’s off night doesn’t have head coach Claude Julien worried.

“I think if you take the good games that he’s played and the tougher games that he’s had, they outnumber those (bad ones) by quite a bit,” said the bench boss after his team held a meeting at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, Mass. “It was a tougher night for the whole team. I guess because he gets a lot of credit for the way he plays, when he’s not on top of his games the first thing we do is notice it. But he’s going to be fine.” (more…)

Chara

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara had time to reflect a little on his second straight Norris Trophy nomination, was announced earlier this week.

And today after his club practiced at Ristuccia Arena, he admitted he’s curious to see how the vote went because of the diversity among him and his competition — Washington’s Mike Green and Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom.

“Both of them are great players and I think it’s going to be very interesting because you have three players from a different-style game (nominated), so we’ll see what the voters decided to go for,” said Chara. (more…)

The Norris Trophy.

Well, I’m back in the comforts of my Woburn, Mass., home. Montreal was obviously a blast. I’ll have more on my trip later.

Today the news got even better for Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, who is resting along with the rest of his teammates today in the aftermath of their first-round playoff sweep of the Montreal Canadiens. For the second straight year and the third time in his career Chara was named one of three finalists for the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman.

The competition in this category, however, is through the roof — with Washington’s Mike Green and Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom the other two finalists. Lidstrom, of course, has won the Norris Trophy six times in the 10 years he’s been a finalist. Just as tough to beat as the man who has won the last three Norrises is the guy who led the NHL in points by a defenseman, Green. The Caps blueliner is a first-time nominee, but he set the record for consecutive games with a goal by a defeneseman and became just the seventh defenseman to scored 30 or more goals.

MK: There’s no way Chara should lose this vote. But unfortunately too many of my colleagues in the PHWA probably relied on stats and highlights to make their votes. The things that made Chara the best defenseman in the league hardly ever showed up in those two places. All you have to know is he was the No. 1 blueliner on the best defensive team in the league and the team with the second-best record. That’s something neither of the other finalists can claim.

BOSTON — It took just 51 seconds into tonight’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series between Boston and Montreal for Canadiens tough guy Georges Laraque — he of the disparaging comments about the Boston Bruins’ toughest players in a pre-series interview — to get on the ice with Bruins winger Shawn Thornton and begin a mini trash-talking session.

It took just a little more than 13 minutes for “Big Georges” to get in Bruins captain Zdeno Chara’s face after a whistle. After all, it was Chara that Laraque said in his radio appearance he really wanted to fight, not Thornton. Well, neither Bruins bone-crusher, nor fellow hard-hitter Milan Lucic, took Laraque’s bait throughout the evening at TD Banknorth Garden.

And that, my friends, was where this game was won. Sure the Bruins needed Chara’s laser-like slap shot from the point to break a 2-2 tie with 8:45 to play in the third. (Just an aside, did that thing break the sound barrier or what? If Chara had someone passing him the puck in the hardest-shot competition, there’s no telling what his NHL record would be.)

But what the Bruins really needed from Chara was to put the ‘C’ on his chest to good work. Had he lost his temper, there’s not telling what would have happened. It could’ve been a rerun of last Thursday’s second period, when there were so many Bruins in the penalty box Thornton had to go to the dressing room. Instead, “Big Zee” turned the other cheek. (more…)

Is that Claude Julien in the "cone of silence."

Heading into this weekend’s final two games of the regular season, there are four Boston Bruins with a chance to appear in all 82 contests for the club this season.

So will they get the chance?

“I’m under the ‘cone of silence,’” head coach and obvious “Get Smart” fan Claude Julien responded today when asked about the chance we’ll see Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard, Mark Stuart and David Krejci close out the season without a missing a date.

But on a serious note, Julien said he’s going to take it game by game, and the addition of Vladimir Sobotka and Mikko Lehtonen from Providence (AHL) and the potential return from injury of Dennis Wideman and P.J. Axelsson certainly gives the Bruins’ coach a number of options. (more…)

The Norris Trophy

It’s a bangwagon really everyone who has anything to do with the NHL, except the immediate family of Mike Green, should be on. It’s the one that drives Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara to the Norris Trophy.

No defenseman has a bigger impact on his team and on the actual games than the Bruins’ captain, even if  Washington’s Green has popped in 30 goals. Nonetheless, there are those contrarians who are backing Green.

Former Bruins player and coach Mike Milbury, now a television analyst, is in the “Chara for Norris” camp, and he said as much on Hockey This Morning with Scott Laughlin, which you can hear by clicking the link.

Kobasew

BOSTON — Have you ever seen a guy score a goal when his stick gets knocked from his hands?

Before tonight, Chuck Kobasew was among those who would’ve answered that question in the negative. But his tally that put the Bruins ahead, 3-0, with 6:25 left in the second period of their 3-1 win over Tampa Bay at TD Banknorth Garden involved a bit of magic with his stick.

With the Bruins on a power play, Zdeno Chara released one of his patented rockets from the point. And let’s let Kobasew describe the rest.

“I was just going to the net trying to get a piece of it. Z got it pretty good; he blew the stick right out of my hands. I think it ping-ponged in after that. I didn’t see it. But it wasn’t pretty,” said the winger, who has now reached 20 goals in a season for the third time in his NHL career.

Tampa Bay head coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t all that impressed.

“I’ve  seen it all. We could do a David Letterman top 10,” he said. “That might be No. 5. That’s not even top five.”

Chara gave credit Kobasew for the recovery on the play and Kobasew joked that he has to work on his wrist strength. But when Chara was asked by another reporter if that was the first time he knocked a player’s stick out of his hands with a shot, he declared “No.”

Chara

There’s no telling what will happen when it comes time for the numerous voting members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association to vote at the conclusion of the regular season, but in reading different writers’ opinions from across the league it’s obvious Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara is a heavy favorite to win the Norris Trophy.

Mike Zeisberger, an outstanding columnist from The Sun, today lauds Chara’s efforts this season to wrest the award away from Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Zeisberger writes. “His 16 goals rank him among the league leaders for defensemen. His plus-24 is one of the best totals in the NHL.

“Yes, the Washington Capitals’ Mike Green is having an outstanding offensive season with 28 goals. And yes, the likes of Lidstrom, Andrei Markov, Dan Boyle, Brian Rafalski and Shea Weber, just to mention a few, certainly deserve consideration.

“Where Chara separates himself from the others is the ability to use his towering frame to completely smother opposing snipers …”

In the Columbus Dispatch, Aaron Portzline also gives the nod to Chara.

The Norris Trophy.

It’s a bit disheartening to read Hall-of-Fame writer Jim Matheson’s mailbag today and notice how much of the Norris Trophy consideration he’s throwing the way of Washington’s Mike Green and his pick Duncan Keith of Chicago. Matheson’s analysis seems to focus mostly on stats, and he only gives one line of space to Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.

MK: The fact is you can’t really quantify what Chara has meant to the Bruins on the back end this season. His play against the top offensive perfomers on other teams doesn’t really show up in the stats. But as far as his durability, his production on the power play and his plus/minus, he has to be the favorite right now. While the Norris is not an MVP, where would the Bruins be without Chara?

Chara

Despite their recent struggles, the Boston Bruins are still atop the Eastern Conference.

And individually, a few Bruins players have had standout seasons — ones that could bring them hardware once the dust settles on the NHL season in June.

This being the time of year that writers start to think about their awards ballots, Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun today picked his winners for the year-end awards. After careful calculation, Zeisberger tabbed goaltender Tim Thomas for the Vezina and Zdeno Chara (over Washington’s Mike Green) for the Norris.

MK: A week or two ago, Thomas and Chara were shoe-ins for those awards. But if the Bruins’ current slide continues — even if the two Bruins stalwarts keep their high-caliber of play going — then the writers will sour on the Bruins’ individuals. It’s just human nature. And, oh by the way, Chara hasn’t exactly been playing his best for a couple weeks now, so Green and the rest of the field have undoubtedly closed the gap.