BOSTON — At 7:41 p.m. ET, Zdeno Chara took the ice at TD Garden and further entrenched himself in Boston sports lore.
If only the Boston Bruins could have backed that moment up.
The B’s dropped a gut-wrenching 2-1 loss in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues, unable to follow through on the heroics displayed by their captain. Chara played just three days after wearing a puck in the mouth in Game 4 and reportedly suffering a broken jaw.
The big man skated Thursday morning with a mouth guard attached to his helmet and later was cleared to play prior to Game 5. In fact, Bruce Cassidy opted to throw Chara into the starting lineup, which induced an absolute eruption from the TD Garden crowd. The Bruins followed up with a very strong period, but the scoreboard read zeroes after 20 minutes.
Chara played 25 shifts, skating 16:42 in a performance that did not go unnoticed by his teammates and his coach and will not soon be forgotten by Bruins fans.
“His injury is a little more serious than some. He was medically cleared with some warnings. His decision to play. Inspirational to us, good player for us,” Cassidy said postgame. “We knew he wouldn’t be 100 percent so we were happy to have him out there. But it speaks to his character and his will to play.”
“Impressive, he gave us a boost,” Patrice Bergeron added. “Like I said, he is our leader. He is a warrior and his pain threshold is pretty much up there.”
Chara was far from just a space keeper as well, laying four hits and blocking three shots in the loss.
“I think it’s pretty special, even to start the game, how loud it got in here,” Jake DeBrusk said. “Obviously he is playing through something major, so to put in a gutsy effort like that, it’s always a morale boost. But in saying that, we didn’t win. So it’s one of those things where you wanna do it for a guy, but they got the result.”
There’s no doubt that Game 5 had a chance to be a “bloody sock,” moment a la Curt Schilling. Instead the Bruins return to St. Louis with their backs against the wall. It’s a situation that they have been in before in these very playoffs, but nonetheless still a very daunting one.
Here are some other notes from Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final:
— Game 5 might go down as the “missed calls game.”
The officials missed more than one egregious St. Louis penalties, including a pair of checks to the head on Marcus Johansson and Torey Krug. But the biggest non-call came in the third period when Noel Acciari blatantly was tripped up in the defensive zone, directly leading to the Blues’ second goal.
— The Bruins now are 0-5 all-time in Game 5’s in the Stanley Cup Final when the series was tied at 2-2.
They are 18-17 in Game 5’s in best-of-seven series all-time. Boston has a 4-20 record in best-of-seven series in which they fall behind 3-2, including 1-4 in the Cup Final.
— Jake DeBrusk scored his first goal of the series.
The top line once again struggled, but DeBrusk was able to get off the schnide as Boston desperately tried to fight back in the third period.
