Bruins’ Zdeno Chara Is Out With Knee Injury

The Boston Bruins will have to dominate this season without Zdeno Chara… at least, for a while

Know how everyone keeps saying that “The Boston Bruins will continue to be a powerhouse in the league as long as Zdeno Chara is still skating”? After all, the team has lost more games than they’ve won without him in the lineup since 2006… which isn’t saying much, since he’s never missed more than five games in a regular season.

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Well… looks like they’ll be in for a rough 4-6 weeks.

According to ESPN Boston’s Joe McDonald, the Bruins’ captain went down in the first period Thursday night, as an apparent knee-on-knee contact hit with New York Islanders captain John Tavares seemed to have injured the 37 year old blue liner.

Reports seem to be consistent that there’s some ligament damage, and the bruiser won’t be seen back in Boston’s lineup until possibly December. This leaves the team even shorter on the back end, as the team has already had to forgo the services of former top-four pairing defenseman Johnny Boychuk right before the season began. He was traded to the New York Islanders (ironic, no?) for a couple of second-round draft picks as a salary dump.

The Bruins are struggling to maintain even a .500 win percentage as the season progresses, and the 3-2 loss to the Islanders on the same night that arguably their most intimidating defenseman goes down cannot help matters. Hopefully, the team will be able to adapt to the relatively young defensive core they will be left with- aside from veteran Dennis Seidenberg, the majority of the team’s blue line will now be under 25.

The team will get their first opportunity to play without Chara on Friday, as they face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

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