Zdeno Chara suffers injury, status uncertain for Game 5

ST LOUIS — The Bruins couldn’t really stand to lose any more defensemen after already being down Matt Grzelcyk in the series, but they may have just lost captain Zdeno Chara as well. Chara took a deflected puck off the mouth in the second period of Boston’s 4-2 loss to the St Louis Blues in Game 4 at Enterprise Center and never returned to game after the injury.

Chara finished with just 8:23 of ice time in his early exit, but did return to the bench in the third period while not being allowed to enter back into the game. According to his teammates, Chara couldn’t really speak on the bench afterward and will definitely be in need of some dental work in the immediate future.

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There’s no telling the extent of the injury in a case where a broken jaw could be the worst case scenario, and would probably put the 42-year-old out for the rest of the Stanley Cup Final series if that were the injury. Clearly though the Bruins aren’t going to know anything until Chara undergoes some further testing and gets a clear diagnosis of the injury,

“He was very uncomfortable. He was advised not to return to play tonight,” said Bruce Cassidy postgame. “He had some stitches and will probably have some dental work in the near future. He wanted to come out to the bench and be with his teammates and that’s why he was out there.

“I don’t know his status for Game 5. Obviously when he gets back home he’ll get re-evaluated and we’ll see how he feels tomorrow for starters. I can’t say whether he’ll play in Game 5 or not. I have no idea.”

Cassidy mentioned that if Chara can’t go in Game 5 then Steve Kampfer, Urho Vaakanainen, Jeremy Lauzon and Jakob Zboril would be the names in the mix to replace the 6-foot-9 D-man with a concussed Grzelcyk still not ready for a return to the Bruins lineup.