A new reality for Chara. Unfortunately, deserved. It's on film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jimZ1tSdPY0


The new reality for Chara is one where players of opposing teams will not trust him on the ice or off, and will slowly reconsider his hit on Pacioretty, on account of the simple statement he made: "I had no idea he was on the ice. I had no idea it was him."  

That would normally send shivers up the spine of NHL players who unanimously agree Chara is the biggest and strongest player in the league.  The notion that a player of Chara’s size, strength and talent plays the game with a confessed level of unconsciousness in what is arguably the fastest and potentially deadliest contact sport on the planet would (should) be frightening to everyone in the NHL.

It’s like a driver racing and overtaking someone to his left and not knowing if it’s someone on a bike or a driver in a fast car. As for the stanchion Chara was apparently also not aware of, that’s like racing and overtaking that someone to your left, guiding that someone through an intersection and into a car traveling in a perpendicular direction and then claiming that he didn’t see the red light.  If he can’t see the red light it’s probably because he had his eyes on that someone to his left he was trying to overtake and slam into a car or a pole. If on the other hand he couldn’t tell who that someone to his left was, bike or car, it’s presumably because he had his eyes on the lights.  If he didn’t see both the someone to his left and the lights up ahead, where was he looking and what’s he doing driving a car?

No NHL player will buy this of course, including Chara’s teammates, and it’s why he will eventually lose the players’ trust.

Two great players thus far have publicly stated they don’t buy Chara’s story or logic. Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin and San Jose Shark Joe Thornton.

“Sedin agreed with Thornton that all players know where stanchions are in rinks and understand the danger of hitting or getting hit in that area. Sedin and Thornton are Hart Trophy winners, two of the best players in the NHL.”

“I'll tell you this: if you say that you don't know where things are around the ice, I think you're not telling the truth,” Sedin said. “You play the game for 20 years, you know it's there.”

Some may say, wait, Thornton and Sedin are great players, and not all players have their talent or vision on the ice.  True. But everyone, including those defending Chara, has also stated that Chara is one of the great players in the NHL, in the “best defenceman” category.  Could one of the best defenceman in the league, some say the best, be that unaware, that unconscious on the ice?

And if that’s the case when he is skating, what about when he's standing still, on the ice, when the play is dead, like just before a faceoff?

That raises the other disturbing bit of info Chara shares in the same breath of his contention that he had no idea it was Pacioretty:

“It was a faceoff and we tried to set up a play. The puck went to the other side and we were racing for the puck,” said Chara. “I had no idea he was on the ice. I had no idea it was him.”

How does a team set up a play from a faceoff in the offensive zone?

Hockey players and coaches and analysts the world over know that come faceoff time everyone on both teams takes careful account of who is on the ice and where, so that when the puck is dropped, depending where it goes, there will be an appropriate response from each attacking or defending player strictly based on having carefully studied everyone’s position on the ice before the puck was dropped.

Perhaps a different story if the play had been going for some time without a whistle, or players were at the end of their shift, light headed and tired.

But this was a play fresh off a faceoff. Ask anyone in the league and they’ll be able to tell you whose line and defensive duo was on for their side and the opposing side. In fact, during a faceoff in the offensive zone the attacking team takes careful stock of who, on the opposing team, may launch a counter attack. The stats and reports are there for everyone, and used by everyone, all the time.

Both Boston and Canadiens know that on the Montreal team Pacioretty has been THE offensive counter-attack threat the last few weeks. Even the Boston coach Claude Julien would have reminded his players to keep an eye on the speedy and crafty Pacioretty at all times, especially during a faceoff in the offensive zone, because he can burn you on the counter attack. And when you are about to take a faceoff in the offensive zone, you know if Pacioretty is on the ice or not.  You keep an eye on him, as Chara did and as the tape shows. You don’t suddenly forget (five seconds later) that he was there, when he did launch the counter attack and you slammed him into the stanchion. Otherwise you can’t possibly be one of the best defeceman in the league.

The basic hockey logic and reality has not been explored or mentioned by analysts and certainly not by the NHL with the lists of questions it put to Chara when making its decision to suspend him or not.

And suddenly, it’s no longer the game we thought we knew and how it’s being studied and played by players and coaches (while it’s being played) and support staff in the rafters and private boxes constantly communicating to the bench.

No, suddenly, the mechanics and game of hockey, its logic, the careful eyes on the game by everyone including players on both teams, on THAT faceoff, went dead for about 5 seconds and came back to life AFTER the hit. That’s what we’re supposed to believe.

Suddenly it’s a game of instincts, total abandon, unconsciousness, and not strategy, it's a fast game, as in too fast, players don’t know who they’re hitting, there’s no taking stock of who’s on the ice during faceoffs, and coaches don’t get stats on which opposing player is hot or cold, and don't even know who is on the ice, and whether or not to place special attention on him, and matching lines is something that never existed, apparently, etc.

Watch the tape, from the faceoff. It was not a fast game at that time. Take note of the view the giant Chara has of the defending Montreal team at the time of the faceoff, and you will see he clearly has Pacioretty in his vision while in the offensive (montreal) zone way before he gets close to him at the blue line and travels with him in the neutral zone - for the interference and the hit.

Chara’s new reality in the NHL will be well deserved, unfortunately. Unfortunate as hell, for him, for hockey, for players, and for hockey fans.

Tony Nardi