The last time Zdeno Chara laced up his skates in the NHL, it was April 29, 2022, and he was back with the New York Islanders, back where he had started his storied career, the team on which he had played for his first four seasons in the League.
He has played again since, in alumni games and charity events, a whole new endeavor for someone whose body has been optimized to run a marathon or compete in an Ironman rather than play hockey. As he said, “Definitely I feel a lot more comfortable now doing Ironmans than skating. You get out of it and you stop skating regularly, you lose it, quite a bit of comfort.”
But even so, Chara, along with former teammates and friends, will once again be taking to the ice on Aug. 21, this time at Pavol Demitra Ice Arena in his native Trencin, Slovakia, in Zee’s Final Shift. It’s a game that will serve as a goodbye and a thank you to those who supported him, a reunion, and a philanthropic endeavor, supporting several schools in Slovakia.
The list of participants is long and distinguished, from Ray Bourque to Mark Recchi to Jaromir Jagr, from David Pastrnak to Patrice Bergeron, from Anze Kopitar to Ziggy Palffy to Marian Hossa, whether they will participate on the ice or behind the bench. There are former Boston Bruins teammates like Marco Sturm and Andrew Ference and fellow Slovak players like Jaroslav Halak and Andrej Sekera.
Longtime Bruins teammate Brad Marchand was scheduled to play as well, but posted last week on Instagram that he will miss the event after having surgery.
It was Hossa, though, who inspired the game.
Three years ago, Hossa had a charity game in Trencin, with Chara in attendance. The defenseman was impressed. So when the same organizers approached him, he was happy to sign up for an event that would celebrate him and hockey and his home city.
“I’m super, super grateful for every player who is coming and making time during their offseason to travel and pay some sort of respect,” Chara said by phone from Slovakia. “I’m super grateful and happy and very, very privileged that I have the chance to play with them and share part of (my) career with them, so it will be great to see them and catch up. Many of them I haven’t seen for many years.”
The concept of the event centers it both for Chara, who has returned to the Bruins since his playing days and now works as a hockey operations advisor and mentor, and for those who have watched and cheered for him throughout his 24-season, Hall of Fame career.
As the organizer suggested to him, it would “give the fans, people and everyone a chance to see me more, saying kind of goodbye that way,” Chara said. “Because I left when I was fairly young and spent my 25-year career playing overseas.”
He came back once, early in his career, playing eight games for HK Dukla Trencin in 2001-02 during his contract negotiations with the Ottawa Senators. But that was it. The rest of his hockey career, with the exception of his international hockey for Slovakia, was in North America.
“Other players who came from here, they had a more significant chance to say goodbye to fans and retire,” he said. “Once I retired I never thought about this, I never looked for that attention, but he convinced me.”
The event will feature a game between team “Boston” and team “Svet,” the latter comprised of players from around the world. The day after the game, there will be golf or biking for the players, a barbecue, a chance to experience a little bit of Chara’s hometown, new for many of the participants.
“Obviously it’s the place where I was born and raised and there’s a lot of memories from childhood, from growing up and playing hockey and making friends and all that stuff,” Chara said. “There is such a history connected with this town as well, so it means a lot to come back and share that with the fans and people who love hockey and the game itself.
“So it’s going to be very special. I’m just, again, happy and grateful that I can have that platform and connections that makes this very special for all those people.”
