Upon departure, I can’t stop thinking about the importance of the arrival.
I don’t mean to be so coldly classifying about something so emotional, but Wednesday’s news that Zdeno Chara — a beast on the ice and an unfailing beauty of a human off it for 14 years in Boston — was signing with the Washington Capitals made me think about how blessed the Bruins were that he chose to come here in the first place.
Chara joined the Bruins as a free agent on July 1, 2006, signing a five-year, $37.5 million contract after spending the previous four years in Ottawa, where he developed into a Norris Trophy-caliber defensemen.