The last time these two teams played was almost exactly a month ago in Boston, and they combined for 187 penalty minutes. The Bruins won 8-6, and the penalty boxes were overflowing with 5 minute fighting majors.
Well, the B's didn't have it on Tuesday. They were slow, they were clumsy, they made bad mistakes and they were totally unable to play their style of hockey effectively, while the Habs were doing everything right. They were faster, sharper, and way more organized than Boston on Tuesday. They managed to put 4 goals past the rusty Tuukka Rask by the second period.
Then, as I'm sure most of you have seen already, something horrible happened. The Bruins had the puck in Montreal's zone and were attempting to set up their offense when an errant pass dribbled up the left side. Zdeno Chara, Boston's larger than life defenseman, turned and made a beeline for the puck as it drifted back towards Boston territory.
As Chara turned, the speedy Montreal forward Max Pacioretty broke for the puck as well, trying to get around Chara's outside shoulder with an opportunity for a breakaway. Chara, who was now facing down ice, could sense Pacioretty coming up behind him and stuck his left arm out to slow him down. As the two men glided towards the boards, Chara finished his check by shoving Pacioretty towards the bench. Except on that one part of the rink, there is no board between player and bench, however there is a turnbuckle separating the two opposing benches. As Chara followed through on his check, Pacioretty's head went full speed into the turnbuckle.
The sound it made was haunting. It sounded like a slapshot hitting the crossbar. Chara's momentum took him past the Montreal bench which rose as one in reaction to the horrible sound. Pacioretty's momentum into the turnbuckle snapped his entire body around like a helicopter blade and he lifelessly fell to the ice. The camera zoomed in on Pacioretty as the Bruins commentators began immediately discussing if the hit was dirty or not. Pacioretty was not moving. He was face down on the ice but his head was tilted slightly so the viewer could see his face. His eyes were closed, there was drool coming out of his mouth, and he was completely non-responsive. The Bruins announcers took in this image and the tone of their chatter went from the legalities of the actual hit to "we really hope Max Pacioretty is ok", and though neither one of them said it, everyone watching thought the same thing : "I think Chara just killed Max Pacioretty"
Max Pacioretty was drafted by the Canadiens in the 2007 entry draft after an impressive career at Michigan. He was a stud in the AHL and was making some very positive contributions to the Habs this season. In a game 2 months ago, Pacioretty scored a goal on a nice wrister in OT to beat Boston and after scoring the game winner he shoved Chara as big Z skated away. Chara then skated up to the celebrating Montreal team and started challenging them even though the game was over. It ended pretty quickly and nothing really happened, just a chippy end to a game between to staunch rivals.
When Max Pacioretty woke up from the hit on Tuesday they were carrying him off the ice. Doctors who saw the hit as it happened didn't want to examine Pacioretty because of how gruesome it looked. Pacioretty was examined and diagnosed with a grade 4 concussion(which I was not even aware existed, I thought it only went up to 3), and a broken 4th vertebrae. The latter injury is oftentimes of the life-ending variety. However, Pacioretty was responding to questions and was able to move his arms and legs at the hospital.
From his hospital bed, Pacioretty expressed disappointment over the fact that Chara was not suspended. He was given a game misconduct but was not suspended by the league. They reviewed the hit, and determined that Chara did not intend to hurt Pacioretty. Pacioretty said that he thought Chara did it to him on purpose.
Zdeno Chara is the biggest player in the league. Literally. He is 6'9 without skates and with them he's over 7 feet. His presence on the ice is intimidating before he even puts his stick down. Chara's style of play has caused much frustration for Boston fans because while he is an elite defenseman with a murderous slapshot he doesn't generally play as big as he is. Especially not on Tuesday, March 8th. The Habs were skating circles around him and the Boston defense that night, lining up one-timers and sneaking in for rebounds almost at will while the Bruins struggled to stay in front of them.
One thing that I've heard a lot lately is that Chara should have known where he was on the ice and that he should have taken that into consideration before finishing his check. Well doesn't the same thing apply to Pacioretty to some extent? He knew he was skating along Chara's outside shoulder and that Chara wasn't going to just let him break away to the puck, yet he was going full speed in that direction knowing just as well as Chara knew that there was a big metal turnbuckle just a few feet away. Another thing to consider is that Chara was not facing the boards, or Pacioretty when he made the hit. He was facing up ice.
I know Montreal doesn't want to hear it, but the NHL did the right thing here. Chara's no headhunter, and he certainly doesn't ever try to injure people, if anything he's the opposite. The antithesis of a guy like Chris Pronger who throws his size around and does whatever he wants. Chara plays like he is very aware of his size and strength on the ice and sometimes goes out of his way to contain himself, because a reckless hit from a 7 footer is a little different from your average reckless hit. There are guys in the league like Matt Cooke who look for opportunities to injure people, guys like Sean Avery and Steve Downie who cheap shot opponents like it's going out of style. Chara has never been one of those guys. Chara could never be Chris Simon. It's just not in his makeup as a hockey player, and the people who were in charge of making this decision most definitely knew it.
In 2007 Patrice Bergeron was boarded head first by then Philadelphia defenseman Randy Jones. Bergeron was taken off on a stretcher and missed the rest of the season. Jones apologized at the next intermission. It was clear to me that he didn't mean to hurt Bergeron. I was pissed off that Bergeron was out for the year, and pissed at Jones because he was the reason, but I also understood that it wasn't that bad of a hit and that Jones was not the type of player who tries to injure his opponents.
What Chara was guilty of was interference. You can't impede the progress of a player without the puck like that. It's a 2 minute minor penalty, and Chara was smart to risk it with a speedy guy like Pacioretty about to blow past him. It was a heartbreaking result of a normal hockey play that just happened to occur at the worst possible place on the ice.
It is unclear as of this posting if Pacioretty will ever be able to play hockey again, although I hope he recovers, I'm sure Zdeno Chara hopes that he does as well. After the play, they cut to Chara a few times before he was escorted out for his game misconduct and the look on his face was pretty telling. He had checked a fleeing forward like that a million times, never once did he probably even consider that he might accidentally throw a guy's head into the turnbuckle, but he did.
However, I would say to those angry at Chara to keep in mind that they all play an incredibly fast, incredibly violent game. And there are players who actually go out of their way to hurt people in the league. Chara isn't one of them, save the hate for the ones who deserve it.
-Judge
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