Chara defying age for the Bruins

Tom Brady gets a lot of credit for being an older player in the New England sports scene who excels at the age of 40. But he is not the only guy who is in this club. The Boston Bruins have a guy like that too: Zdeno Chara.

Chara might not be on Brady’s level (he definitely isn’t) but the point still stands. You’d think a guy as old as Chara would be mediocre to subpar. That’s what I thought prior to the season, but he is doing big things for the team--and he is doing well.

His speed doesn’t really look like an issue like it has in recent years which has resulted in good stats and the team depending on him. He has amassed more ice time (23:20) per game than anyone else on the team. And with all that ice time comes the best rating (+27) of any player on the team this season. His 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) isn’t bad either, for a man of his age.

As of February 8 the Bruins were in second place in the Atlantic Division (74 points), just one point away from first place. It takes a good team to do that, and a good leader. Well, Chara is the captain of the team and he is playing well at 40 years old, so he deserves a lot of credit (despite how much we all love to rag on him in recent years).

Oh, and he reached a milestone in the past week. He played in his 1,400th career NHL game on Saturday, Feb. 3. That’s solid.  

Chara is a free agent after this season, but he might just be playing his way into a career extension. If he can keep this up, no one will be complaining about that.