What we learned from Sports Illustrated’s feature on Zdeno Chara’s obsession with excellence
Zdeno Chara’s teammates were pleasantly surprised when their towering captain walked into the rink last spring carrying boxes of donuts to celebrate Boston’s Stanley Cup playoff berth. The move surprised them because the Bruins were used to their exceptionally committed captain working, and eating, like a well-oiled machine.
Chara explained that he handed out the donuts to let the guys have a sweet tooth and loosen up. But he did not extend the slack to himself.
“I didn’t have any donuts,” Chara said.
That’s one of the many anecdotes from Alex Prewitt’s deep-dive into Chara’s makeup that demonstrate the 41-year-old defenseman’s dedication to excellence. Here’s what we learned from the Sports Illustrated feature:
Chara has recorded every offseason workout in a folder
The Bruins captain has catalogued each and every summer exercise he’s completed since he entered the NHL in a dark blue two-pocket folder. The careful record-keeping started under his father’s tutelage in Slovakia. Zdenek Chara was an Olympic wrestler for Czechoslovakia who became the national team coach and taught his son to track the workouts he put him through, including swinging a concrete flower pot on the end of his hockey stick. Today, Chara plans his summer training sessions well in advance.
“I’m a thinker,” he told Prewitt. “I like to do the work of preparation. When I start doing things, I like to already have a purpose.”
He breaks the sessions down by sets, repetition, and weight, then writes down how each one made his body feel in a mix of English and Slovak (Chara speaks nine languages).
“You can easily figure out patterns of preparation,” Chara said. “It’s like a big puzzle.”
He’s found a new coach to streamline his skating
Although Chara worked on his own during the offseason, he enlisted a local coach in Boston to help him improve his skating. Right after he sat down with Adam Nicholas, Chara told him, “Listen, I want to keep improving. I want to play for as long as I possibly can.”
Like his fellow elder statesman in Boston, the Bruins captain is using every tool at his disposal to stay at the top of his game in a league full of athletes half his age. Nicholas found inefficiencies in Chara’s skating mechanics and made suggestions—a lower stance, keeping the stick in tight on turns—that allowed him to pivot faster and better defend oncoming attackers. Chara said he felt like a Riverdancer in the drills they worked and compared it shifting from a mansion to a one-bedroom apartment.
“The perfect size [for a defenseman] would be somebody who’s 6-foot-3 and can fly,” Chara says. “For a guy who’s 6-foot-9 and heavy, 250, long legs, it takes a lot of work to be seen like, ‘Hey, he can still play, he can still move.'”
Nicholas isn’t the only one Chara’s learning from. According to Prewitt, Chara was disappointed NHL players didn’t attend the Pyeonchang Olympics because it robbed him of the opportunity to study other elite athletes. He’s picked the brains of weightlifters and cyclists in the past, and worked with Olympic ice dancers Alex and Maia Shibutani after meeting them at a Bruins game. The hard work is paying off in his 20th season.
“I honestly can tell I got faster,” Chara said.
Chara motivates himself, his example motivates everyone else
During his last season with the Ottawa Senators, in 2005, Chara asked the coaches if he could play an entire game. He wanted 60 minutes of ice time. They didn’t doubt that he could. It’s that personal drive that forces everyone around him to rise to meet the standard he sets.
“He doesn’t need a trainer or a coach yelling at him to get back in shape,” said Andrew Ference, a retired Bruin. “He’s the opposite. He needs people to tug on his reins: ‘Zee, you’re playing 28 minutes a night, we’re in the playoffs, you don’t need to go into the gym and have a full workout after the game.’”
Kevan Miller said he was nervous the first time he met Chara as his hand disappeared in their handshake, but teammates said the captain makes everyone feel welcome.
Charlie McAvoy, who was born after Chara made his NFL debut, said, “He doesn’t treat rookies like rookies. Everyone gets involved.”
And they stay involved even on their off days. On the second day of Boston’s bye week in January, Chara called Miller to see if he wanted to book ice time.
“I don’t like to sit around and do nothing,” Chara said. “I like to keep getting better, staying in the rhythm.”
