The 42-year-old defenseman will have a scheduled follow-up procedure for a broken jaw sustained during the Stanley Cup Final and is expected to be ready to play at the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, the Bruins' first game after the Christmas break.
"It's a day-to-day thing, so unless there's some complication going into it, which I don't suspect there would be, he'll back in in Buffalo [on Friday]," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Chara was injured in the second period of Game 4 of the Cup Final and returned for Games 5, 6 and 7 against the St. Louis Blues with a clear jaw protector. He needed two plates, along with wires and screws, to repair multiple fractures in his jaw and allow him to complete the best-of-7 series, which Boston lost to give St. Louis its first Stanley Cup championship.
The Bruins are 0-0-3 in their past three games and 1-4-4 in their past nine since an eight-game winning streak.
"[The timing], it's never going to be I guess perfect," Chara said. "Tried to plan this, and obviously we tried to make that decision ahead of time, and that's what it is. We tried to take advantage of that little break we have coming up so it's too demanding I guess on the body. But yeah it just worked out to be the last game before the Christmas break.
"The area where the surgery was done got infected, which is kind of rare, but it does happen. You know after six months a decision was made to avoid maybe further trouble with that area, to basically remove all the plates and the screws and clean it up. So pretty much the same thing, just instead of putting the plates in it's going to be taking the plates out."
Chara has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 37 games for the Bruins (21-7-9), who are first in the Atlantic Division.
