Standing 6'9" along with 255 pounds, Chara is a biggest player in the league and also has the hardest slap shot inside the league.
Nicklas Lidstrom retired afre the wedding of last season, and Erik Karlsson spent almost all the 2013 season on the sidelines with an Achilles injury.
Those two events opened the threshold for Chara to earn his second Norris Trophy and additionally regain the title in the NHL's best defenseman.
Nonetheless, it didn't play out like this on the ice. When finalists for any Norris Trophy were announced the other day, you did not discover Chara's name.
The finalists are Kris Letang with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ryan Suter within the Minnesota Wild and G. K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens.
There were no excessive moans and complaints out of your Boston front office when Chara hasn't been included among the finalists. General manager Peter Chiarelli and additionally head coach Claude Julien were not outraged when Chara was ignored.
There's a purpose of that. Chara remains an intimidating presence nevertheless does many things right on the ice. However, there is a vulnerability to his game that surfaced in 2013 and were seen in previous years.
When Chara has to undertake a puck close to help his body or they gets hit hard when he is searching for the puck, he is not always going to create a play that favors that Bruins.
In the past, if a player tried to check Chara or get physical with him the slightest bit, the player would characteristically bounce off Chara and fall with the ice in some inglorious mode.
Smaller players contain a leverage advantage over Chara right after they are moving at increased rate of speed. Once they hit him at box level, they can move your ex backward—and take the puck from him.
Chara's statistics indicate some drop-off being the 2013 season progressed. He finished the totally normal season with seven targets, but he scored just one of them in the finalized 24 games.
Chara finished at plus-14 within the regular season. That may be respectable, but he was plus-33 in each one of the last two regular the seasons.
Chara was minus-two throughout the last 12 regular-season games. That's when the Bruins slumped along with missed out on to be able to win the Northeast Division and take the Certainly no. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference far from the Montreal Canadiens.
He is still your Bruins' best defenseman. Nonetheless, when opposing teams used in order to avoid Chara at just about all times and send their full capacity lines out against reduced defensemen, there doesn't look like as much fear associated with Big Z when she's on the ice and the Bruins are attempting to protect a lead.
Chara tied for 73rd in blocked shots this year with 64, he ranked 21st inside hits with 101 along with he was also priced with 34 giveaways although taking the puck away from opponents just 12 times.
But based on their play this year—particularly over the second half of the season—he isn't the dominant player he was ahead of 2013.
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