Thursday was his first time on the ice with his teammates since the injury.
"He's out there skating but not playing tonight," coach Claude Julien said.
The Bruins are 1-2-1 without Chara, their captain, though they have allowed eight goals in four games. They were encouraged by the way they played against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 3-2 shootout loss Tuesday, when they were without Chara and defenseman John-Michael Liles, who is out indefinitely because of a concussion sustained against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday. The Bruins rallied to send the game to the shootout after trailing 2-0 after two periods, and they outshot the Flyers 47-21. The 47 shots on goal were a season high, and the 21 shots on goal allowed tied for the third-fewest in a game.
"We've hung in there, no doubt," Julien said. "We gave up two goals last game, two early goals, one power play and one even strength. And then for the rest of the game we managed to shut them out. Good goaltending helps, but at the same time ... they didn't have as many scoring chances as they normally do. So I think right there again, I credit our team for not just the back end, but doing it by committee. But those guys on the back end are part of that committee that's doing a decent job."
The Bruins have received a boost from the return from injury of defenseman Kevan Miller, who has averaged 19:55 of ice time in four games. Against the Flyers, defenseman Torey Krug played a game-high 25:53 and had two assists. It's been a team effort making up for the absences of Chara and Liles.
"Simplifying everything and not worrying about it," Krug said about the key to success while playing without two veteran defensemen. "Obviously we have a huge void with [Chara] out of the lineup, but we've shown that we can get the job done. ... We're showing that we can do the job. Obviously it'd be nice to have [Chara] back but you simplifying things, the guys play within themselves and we can prove that."
