“I have passion for the game and believe that I can still play. By continuing his career, Chara could play in the Olympics for the fourth time, but he said training camp and the NHL season are his focus, not the chance to go to Beijing.īut what actually persuaded him to keep playing? The Bruins let their longtime captain leave in free agency last fall following 14 seasons, and Chara went to Washington to play for a year with the Capitals.Ĭhara showed he still had gas in the tank by averaging more than 18 minutes a night and playing 55 of the 56 games on the condensed, shortened schedule. The big Slovak defenseman will look to win the Cup again just over a decade since hoisting it as Boston’s captain. “We were going through some different phases at that time, but I learned a lot from that.” “It was my first team, my first NHL experiences,” Chara said. He still feels grateful for that opportunity. “It’s a well-structured and cultured team now, and for sure they’ve been making a lot of noise around the league.”Ĭhara was a third-round pick of the Islanders in 1996 and made his debut with them the next year before being traded to Ottawa in 2001.

“It’s a very solid group with strong leadership and strong core players that have been part of the Islanders for a long time,” Chara said. Playing on Long Island allows Chara to be somewhat close to his family in Boston and contribute for a contender that has been on the verge of reaching the final the past two playoffs. It worked out with the Islanders after Chara ultimately decided not to hang up his skates and picked them over other interested teams.

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