Zdeno Chara is attended to after being injured during Game Four of the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Enterprise Center on June 03, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Bruins captain Zdeno Chara reportedly has a broken jaw and, if that's the case, don't expect him to play the rest of the Stanley Cup Final.
B's and Blues are tied at two with Game 5 tomorrow at the Garden, and head coach Bruce Cassidy, Charlie McAvoy, and David Pastrnak know their leader isn't easily replaceable.
"We need two more wins and so do they, so it's not for an extended period of time," Cassidy said. "I think that helps as well, your mental state's like, hey, just suck it up and do whatever you gotta do, whatever it takes ... You're taking good players out of your line, that's the part that hurts the most, if they can't go. Our mentality will be fine about who's in, and next man up."
"It's gonna be by committee," McAvoy said. "It's gonna be the forwards stepping up and getting D out there who sometimes maybe don't kill as much, to step out there and get the job done."
"It's just gonna be, suck it up and play through it," Pastrnak said.
The Bruins might play with an extra seventh defenseman and one less forward to help their depth and give them more options.
Brad Marchand said, if Chara doesn't play, he probably won't take the news well.
"I think if it wasn't for a doctor, then he would've played that game," Marchand said. "He's that kind of guy that you're gonna have to kill him to keep him off."
Let's not rush to anything.
WBZ NewsRadio's Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) reports