Saving Face: Boston Bruins

We all have players on our favourite team that we value, ones that we wouldn't give up for anything. But they didn't all start out that way, in fact many "Franchise" players weren't even drafted by the team that now finds them so valuable. Some are on their second team, some are on their fourth, but all of them have become extremely valuable hockey players. This series is intended to allow us to look closely at these so called "Faces of the Franchise" because sometimes stars are easy to see, sometimes it takes years to find diamonds in the rough, and sometimes you don't know what you got till it's gone.


Today it's the Boston Bruins. Some of you asked for this:

But I went with this:

...oh the glory, legend has it he grew 3 sizes that day.

Boston Bruins - Zdeno Chara

Half Man, Half Animal and Half Rübenzahl. and no I did not finish Math 11 Essentials. He has become quite the legendary figure, stomping around the Bruins' blue line like one of the bad guys from THE BEST SHOW EVER! However, some people don't know that he has quite humble origins, some might even say the humblest....

Yes he was an Islander draft pick, but he is now the face of the Bruins' franchise, and the body...

Something tells me Islander draft picks that are successful somewhere else is gonna come up a lot in this blog....

That's about enough periods for now....

Future watch indeed! Let's get started.

1997-98: Zdeno plays 25 games and registers 1 point. TOTAL BUST shouts Mike Milbury. However, he does spend one of those games contributing to one of the best fighting montages of all time!

1998-99: Splitting time between the AHL and the NHL, the hulking Czech struggles to adapt, playing in 59 games and registering 8 points. Mike Milbury has to be physically restrained from trading Chara on the spot, stating "Don't you understand that Jason Doig is available!?"

1999-2000: Another mediocre season for Chara, possible because his hands are so far away from his brain. He registers 11 points and is a MINUS 27!!! in just 65 games. At this point even Milbury is starting to make a lot of sense.

2000-01: Back to back MINUS 27!!!! seasons for Chara, but this time he increases his penalty minutes by 100 to reach 157 for the year. Despite playing a full season for the first time he actually registers 2 less points than the previous season, this time settling for 9. Mike Milbury breaks free of the dungeons of Nassau Coliseum and trades Chara to the Senators, which was either a really good trade or a really bad trade, I can't remember. I imagine the phone call went something like this:

MILBURY: "Hey, sup' MJ, you mind if I call you MJ? I'm gonna call you MJ. You still got that Yashin guy? He's pretty good right? Wanna trade him for this giant I found? I'm serious, swear to GAHD this guys is freakin' huge! I'll throw in the second pick, you could get that Spezza kid, I mean if you want to. I hear he's a total BUST. So what do you say?"

MARSHALL JOHNSTON(Ottawa's GM at the time): ".......are you serious?"

MILBURY: "Don't waste my freakin' time here MJ. It's a done deal. You think that Yashin guy will like it if I lowball him for 87.5 million dollars over 10 years? Russians are suckers anyways, Goalies are where it's at!"

(Milbury has a wicked bad Boston accent in my mind)

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF HIM!

2001-02: Freed from the cesspit of New York, Chara flourishes in Ottawa. He finished with 10 goals, 23 points and a whopping +30, meaning that his improvement from last year is +57 which proves that, yes the Islanders do suck

2002-03: Chara improves again, making the All-Star but losing hardest shot to Al MacInnis, who may or may not be a high-powered hockey playing robot from the future.

2003-04: Chara really breaks out, registering 41 points and is nominated for the Norris Trophy for best defensemen but loses to Scott Niedermayer, whose beard accepts the prize shouting "Stay off my lawn ya damn kids!" Also, Chara does this, which is hilarious.

2004-05: Lockout baby! Chara spends his time playing for Farjestad of the SEL and on weekends, uses his body as a bridge to Denmark.

2005-06: Chara posts career highs in Goals and Points but chooses not to resign with Ottawa in the off-season, probably because its safety is compromised due to falling ice.

Mini-Me, you complete me.

2006-07: Having to watch Ottawa go all the way to Cup Finals without him has a negative effect on Chara. He equals his career high for Points but his Plus/Minus dips way back down to -21. His plus/minus fluctuations are crazier than how I choose to play Roller Coaster Tycoon.

2007-08: This is a good year for Chara as he records a point total that remains unbeaten to this day. 51 points and 17 goals earns him a trip to the All-Star and just about nothing else as the Bruins lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Canadiens, whose fans probably reacted maturely, as they always do.

2008-09: Bored, Chara challenges everyone on Earth to a Slapshot Competition. Mike Komisarek is never the same... Oh and he found time to do this.

2009-2010: Another steady season for Chara who finishes with 7 goals and a respectable 44 points. In other words, he isn't Rodney Dangerfield.

2010-2011: Big year for Big Zeezy, he gets a hat trick and mocks his hero. He almost kills a guy, intentional or not. And he wins the Stanley Cup as a member of the Boston Bruins, which leads to this and this and this.

Zdeno was a extremely big fish in an extremely toxic pond in New York, and grew a bit too big for his britches causing him to fly the coop in Ottawa. But he settled nicely in Boston, becoming the noticeable, frightening, face of the Boston Bruins, and as Captain I assume he is now holding the Stanley Cup high above his head, presumably bumping it into all kinds of space stuff, mainly satellites. Cheers to him and to the Boston Bruins, who probably aren't over-celebrating.

Tune in Monday when we move on to the Buffalo Sabres. Wondering who we'll pick? I got one conjuction and two nouns for ya: IT'S MILLER TIME!!!!!!