Five former Montreal Canadiens bore witness to Zdeno Chara's final game in Slovakia.
It was the end of an era in Slovakia on Friday as Zdeno Chara played his farewell game. The event, which was marketed as Zee’s Final Shift, featured former Boston Bruins teammates and many friends from his NHL career and beyond. Five former Montreal Canadiens were among the player list: goaltender Jaroslav Halak, wingers Mark Recchi, Thomas Vanek and Michael Ryder and defenseman Thomas Kaberle
Halak played two of his three seasons in Boston alongside Chara from 2018 to 2020, so he was a Bruin when Chara had his swan song with the Canadiens’ rivals. As for Recchi, he played the last three seasons of his career in Boston with Chara from 2008 to 2011, and he therefore raised the Stanley Cup with Chara back in 2011. It was one of the three Cups the former Hab won in his career, the other two coming with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Carolina Hurricanes, meaning he won Cups in three different decades. Ryder also played with the Bruins from 2008 to 2011 and won a Cup with the bears’ legend. Finally, Kaberle played only 24 regular-season games with the Bs, but he arrived at the right time, joining that Stanley Cup-winning run before spending parts of two seasons with the Canadiens.
While Chara became public enemy number one in Montreal after his dangerous hit on Max Pacioretty, the Bell Centre crowd still gave him an ovation when he played the 1,500th game of his career in Montreal. Habs fans have always been known as knowledgeable, and that was a great demonstration that, despite spending years making the player feel unwelcome in Montreal, they still knew how great a player he was.
At the end of the exhibition game, which took place at the Pavol Demitra Ice Stadium in Trencin, Slovakia, Chara, the 49-year-old, skated to center ice and removed his skates, leaving them there in a symbolic gesture, before walking off the ice holding hands with his twin sons under the guard of honor formed by the players who featured in the game.
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