Zdeno Chara has broken his silence. Well, as much as he can anyway.
The Boston Bruins captain has become the center of attention in the Stanley Cup Final after he reportedly broke his jaw when he took a puck to the face in the Bruins’ Game 4 loss to the St. Louis Blues. Despite the injury, Chara was on the ice Thursday morning ahead of a pivotal Game 5, and he’s considered a game-time decision for the contest at TD Garden.
Chara has kept quiet up to this point, presumably for a couple of reasons. One is that injuries are guarded like state secrets during the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the more obvious reason is Chara’s injury makes speaking very difficult if not downright impossible.
Perhaps both of those can be considered reasons why Chara didn’t speak following Thursday’s morning skate. However, Chara took a couple of questions from the media and apparently wrote down his answers.
What those responses mean as to whether he’ll play is hard to say. On one hand, it’s hard to imagine Chara would be taking any questions if he knew he wasn’t going to play in Game 5. On the other hand, the fact he can’t actually speak will make on-ice communication difficult if not impossible. Of course, perhaps it’s possible this is a bit of gamesmanship from the Bruins?
We’ll know for sure soon enough.
