Zdeno Chara had quite a week. A week ago, Chara celebrated his 42nd birthday. Five days later, on Saturday, he signed a one-year contract extension until the 2019-2020 season. Later that day, he scored his 200th NHL goal and became only the 22nd defenseman to do so in the NHL history.
That’s the best example of why he keeps playing hockey even though he is a 42-year-old who has plenty of mileage on his body. It still brings him a ton of positive emotions. Reaching the milestone of 200 NHL goals bothered him for a while, mainly because of his father. His father, Zdenek Chara, constantly asked him about when is he going to score that 200th goal. Last Saturday, Chara could finally call his dad. Chara’s father cannot chirp his son anymore, but he definitely won’t be sad.
So why is his dad so important for Zdeno Chara? Many hockey players could just relate to this. Their parents are pretty much fundamental for their hockey development. But especially for Zdeno Chara, who started to play hockey almost 30 years ago in his home country Slovakia. A quarter of a century ago, a 17-year-old Chara tried out for a junior hockey team in his hometown of Trencin.
Chara’s prospective coach was Ernest Bokros.
“I remember when we came to Trencin back then and that coach told him, that he will never become a hockey player. And I told him: ‘Remember, that once my son will be the best defenseman in the world and I will coach him alone.’ And so I started to coach him,” Zdenek Chara said about the incident.
One Stanley Cup, one Norris Trophy, 1479 games in the NHL played and 641 points recorded. The captain on an Original Six team, the Boston Bruins for 13 seasons and counting. It was his father’s determination which lifted Chara to the position he can find himself now. Zdenek Chara was originally a wrestler.
“We started to train together. His coach told me that he is too tall to be a hockey player and that he will never be mobile enough to play hockey. But I knew there where many tall players in sports. We started to work on his mobility and movement and it paid off. Just because I was good at fighting, I didn’t want him to become a fighter. But I always wanted him to stand for his teammates,” Zdenek said.
That’s why Chara’s dad is so happy about his son’s success. It’s his success as well. Bokros, who later became the coach of Slovakian U21 national hockey team, just recently resigned because of allegedly taking bribes. Many other young players fired back at him that he is not giving enough opportunities to them and instead of that he was giving the opportunity to those, whose parents pay for it.
“I never predicted him to become a good hockey player, but he and his father went the different way and proved me wrong,” Bokros said a few years back.
Hard work, dedication, and belief. That’s what brought Zdeno Chara to eventually become one of the best defensemen in the history of hockey.
