While it might have been disappointing when the NHL and NHLPA couldnt come to an agreement last week, it hasnt stopped the local NHL players from getting together to skate.
On Tuesday Shawn Thornton was a part of the local group of players skating together at an area rink, but the locals were joined for the first time in months by Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. The KHL, Swiss League and Czech League are all on a current 10-day holiday break, so NHL players like Chara and Tyler Seguin have temporarily returned to Boston from their overseas adventures.
It was a perfect time for Chara to leave his HC Lev team in Prague as there are some hard feelings for the Bs defensemen from his former teammate, Miroslav Satan. Chara drilled Satan with a pair of hits in Novemberone when he caught Satan with his head down carrying the puck in the neutral zonethat caused a concussion and a neck injury that still have the former BsIslandersSabres forward out of his KHL teams lineup.
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The hit was a clean one perhaps made worse by the size difference between the two players, but Satan still had some unkind things to say about his Slovakian countryman through the European media. The following Satan quote was tweeted out by Czech reporter Roman Jedlicka of TV NOVA:
The great friendship between Bruins Zdeno Chara and Miro Satan is over. Reason? Two huge hits from Chara in November, Satan is still (1)
Roman Jedlicka (@jedli) December 11, 2012
injured. Satan: "Zdeno risked the health and life of someone who calls a good friend. I'm not saying he wanted intentionally to hurt me (2)
Roman Jedlicka (@jedli) December 11, 2012
but he knew that was me and that i didnt see him. Plate between the sixth and seventh vertebrae in my neck is displaced by 4.5 mms(3)
Roman Jedlicka (@jedli) December 11, 2012
into the spinal canal. It took a bit and I may have been paralyzed. Source: goo.glV1wZB (end)
Roman Jedlicka (@jedli) December 11, 2012
Chara maintained after the game he didnt know at the time it was Satan until after each of the hits took place, and has always considered incidents like the hit in question as hockey plays.
Chara has nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) in 20 games with Lev Prague, and is a plus-3 while battling to keep up with the quick skill game favored in Europe over the gritty, physical North American version.
Thornton and Chara were joined on Tuesday afternoon by skate regulars like Jay Pandalfo, Ryan Whitney and Keith Yandle, who continue to skate locally rather than report to their NHL homes in Edmonton and Phoenix.
Brandon Yip, Tuukka Rask, Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic have also been regular skaters over the last few weeks, but werent among those skating on the frozen sheet Tuesday.