It’s induction day for the IIHF Hall of Fame on May 25, and amongst the four inductees is perhaps the most hated player in Montreal in recent history: Zdeno Chara. The hulking defenseman was cast as the public enemy number one in Montreal when he checked the then 22-year-old Max Pacioretty’s head into the stanchion at the end of the Boston Bruins’ bench back in 2011.
From then on, he got booed relentlessly every time the six-foot-nine blueliner touched the puck on the Bell Centre Ice against the Montreal Canadiens. While he might have been persona non grata in Montreal, Chara had a fantastic career spanning 24 years in the NHL. He played 1,680 games in the show, putting up 680 points and 2085 penalty minutes.
When he captained the Boston Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 2011, he became just the second European captain to do so after the Detroit Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom.
Internationally, Chara skated in three Olympics (2006, 2010, 2014) and took part in seven World Championships, winning silver in 2000 and 2012 with Solvakia. He also won the silver medal at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey with Team Europe. At the 2014 Olympics, he was Slovakia’s flag bearer.
Even though the Bell Centre crowd never missed an opportunity to boo Chara, when he beat the 1,500-game milestone, he received an ovation in Montreal and looked visibly moved. It wasn’t that the fans had forgotten or even forgiven the hit on Pacioretty, but the knowledgeable crowd can recognize talent, and Chara had plenty of it to remain a dominant figure of the game for as long as he did. Even if he was the face of the Canadiens hated rival for years.
Photo Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images
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