Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara took the TD Garden ice for pregame warmups right behind Tim Thomas on Saturday night. With the captain's status uncertain following a bout with dehydration, it looked like it was all systems go for Chara.
Not so fast.
The Bruins announced that the big defenseman would be scratched for Game 2 against the Canadiens shortly thereafter. Shane Hnidy, originally thought to be one of the healthy scratches, will get the nod and try to help make up for the 25 minutes of ice time lost in Chara's absence.
Chara was hospitalized on Friday night with dehydration, but the prevailing thought throughout the day on Saturday was that he would be good to go as the B's tried to even their Eastern Conference quarterfinals series with the Habs following an opening-game loss.
"He got treated for a little bit of dehydration, and that's basically all there is to that," Bruins coach Claude Julien told reporters Saturday morning. "Until our medical staff tells me he can't go, he's in tonight."
After giving it a go during the pregame skate, though, someone decided that Chara wouldn't be able to go.
Click here to get instant analysis throughout Game 2 with NESN.com Bruins reporter Doug Flynn's live blog of Bruins-Canadiens from TD Garden.
