BOSTON — Zdeno Chara could have taken the day off. None of his teammates would have disputed the decision. His coach certainly wouldn't have questioned his commitment.
But as much as Chara could have used some extra rest after returning from his native Slovakia late Friday night to attend Thursday's funeral services for Pavol Demitra, the Bruins captain needed to get back on the ice even more, if for nothing else just to get his mind off his grief for a few hours.
So Chara was out there with the rest of the Bruins on Saturday, participating in the first full-squad practices of training camp. His legs were heavy with lack of rest, but his heart was even heavier with thoughts of Demitra, one of 44 people, including 37 players, coaches and staff of the KHL club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, to die in a plane crash on Sept. 7.
"Obviously I'm tired, I'm exhausted," Chara said after practice.
"I wanted to practice," Chara added. "I don't want to miss any days. Obviously if I did it wouldn't be a big deal. It would be for a good reason."
Bruins coach Claude Julien would have gladly given Chara some time off, but he appreciated both Chara's need to get back to work and his dedication to his duties as captain.
"I would have certainly been willing to give him that time, but he really wanted to go on the ice today for a bunch of reasons," Julien said. "He takes his job as a leader pretty seriously. He got in late last night and he felt it would be good for him to get in a workout. He did look tired and he felt tired. Just the fact that he came out, it was nice to see him out there and he certainly showed a great example today of a guy who's dedicated through everything he's been through in the last week or so. He lost a good friend he was close to, and I think emotionally it took a toll on him this past week."
After practice, Chara struggled to control his emotions as he spoke of his longtime friend Demitra, who grew up in the same region of Slovakia as Chara and played with him on the national team in 2006 and 2010 Olympics.
"It's my neighbor," Chara said. "We shared a lot of great moments and stories together. It's very sad. You lose a guy like that, it's not easy."
Chara took solace on the ice, returning to the routine of practice, which helped to keep his mind off the tragedy for at least a few hours.
"It does," Chara said. "You have to stay busy. You have to go about your business and do your job. I'm sorry guys, it's tough to talk about. It's a big loss."
The summer has been an emotional rollercoaster for Chara, who went from the highs of winning his first Stanley Cup in June to the depths of last week's devastating crash.
"This summer's been a really crazy summer," Chara said. "It's been a summer of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We're going to miss all those guys. It's very unfortunate. It's a big tragedy. It was a really weird summer, mixed emotions, obviously. But you have to move on."
