He will not play tomorrow night in New York against the Rangers, the B’s next-to-last preseason game.
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Chara was injured during the Bruins’ 4-3 shootout victory against the New York Rangers at TD Garden on September 24. Drafted 56th overall in the 1996 National Hockey League Entry Draft, the 6 foot 9 blue liner is part of an ever-shrinking group of players from his draft year to remain in the National Hockey League (Danny Briere and Sami Salo both retired this off-season, while Chris Phillips will miss a chunk of the upcoming season with a lingering back injury) so it’s expected that he’ll be seeing diminishing ice time. Is he playing [Wednesday against the Rangers]? That’s not ideal for somebody still considered your No. 1 defenseman if you’re the Boston Bruins, but Claude Julien said he’s just taking encouragement that Chara’s condition is improving.
Julien also revealed Jonas Gustavsson will play the entire game Wednesday as the team continues to figure out its potential backup goalie situation. He missed two months because a knee injury. The exhibition season concludes with a game in Washington vs. the Capitals Friday. While recent performances from the likes of Joe Morrow have the team encouraged, there’s no doubting that without Chara and without Seidenberg, it will be very hard for the Bruins to avoid missing the playoffs again this season.
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“Every day is a new day to evaluate him”, Julien said. “We talk about breaking the puck out of our own end, and that’s an element that a guy like that can bring to our team since he’s such a good skater”.
