Skating off the ice after the Boston Bruins gut-wrenching Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Blues, Zdeno Chara was nursing both a broken jaw and an elbow injury that was deemed worthy of minor surgery this summer.
Whilst we all know that the guy is a warrior, especially in light of the fact he returned to the bench following the initial jaw injury and then managed to line-up despite a liquid diet and inability to really speak; expecting him to be fighting fit after limited healing time is unrealistic.
If the injuries had occurred in April and he’d now had almost six months to get himself rehabbed and back to full strength, opening night even for the 42 year-old veteran would have been achievable.