Chara ruled out for Rangers game, might return in preseason

The Boston Bruins got yet another piece of bad news about their defense on Thursday, when Zdeno Chara left the preseason game against the New York Rangers during the first period. Drafted 56th overall in the 1996 National Hockey League Entry Draft, the 6 foot 9 blue liner is part of an ever-shrinking group of players from his draft year to remain in the National Hockey League (Danny Briere and Sami Salo both retired this off-season, while Chris Phillips will miss a chunk of the upcoming season with a lingering back injury) so it’s expected that he’ll be seeing diminishing ice time. Is he playing [Wednesday against the Rangers]? That’s not ideal for somebody still considered your No. 1 defenseman if you’re the Boston Bruins, but Claude Julien said he’s just taking encouragement that Chara’s condition is improving.

Julien also revealed Jonas Gustavsson will play the entire game Wednesday as the team continues to figure out its potential backup goalie situation. He skated with Matt Beleskey and David Pastrnak, while Brett Connolly was back on his line with Ryan Spooner and Jimmy Hayes after sitting for Monday’€™s preseason game. He missed two months because a knee injury. They open the regular season at home October 8 against the Winnipeg Jets. While recent performances from the likes of Joe Morrow have the team encouraged, there’s no doubting that without Chara and without Seidenberg, it will be very hard for the Bruins to avoid missing the playoffs again this season.

“Every day is a new day to evaluate him. We talk about breaking the puck out of our own end, and that’s an element that a guy like that can bring to our team since he’s such a good skater”.