Washington Capitals: Zdeno Chara looking sharp in his new jersey

Your first look at Zdeno Chara in a Washington Capitals jersey.

On Tuesday, Zdeno Chara was cleared from quarantine and hit the ice with Group B donning his Washington Capitals jersey for the first time. It’s going to take some getting used to. The Caps shocked the hockey world when they inked him to a one year deal worth $795,000.

Chara’s first defensive partner was 2016 first rounder Lucas Johansen. Everyone looked up to him, literally, including this year’s first rounder Hendrix Lapierre. On Wednesday morning, Chara joined the A team and was on the third pairing with Nick Jensen.

“It was exciting to put to the Washington Capitals jersey on,” said Chara via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post.

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Could this be the pairing they go with on opening night? Only time will tell. To make room for Chara on the varsity squad, Martin Fehervary was sent to the B team. During one particular drill, Chara used his physicality to knock over Garnet Hathaway.

Chara elaborated more about his chatter with Lapierre. Via Pell:

"“I enjoy talking to younger players when they have questions or asking me for stories or kind of, you know, asking what it was like many years ago playing in the NHL. It is nice to have these conversations and starting new friendships.”"

Chara was drafted in the third round at 56th overall by the New York Islanders but he’s more known for his time with the Boston Bruins. His best season came in 2008-09 when he scored 19 goals and 31 assists. Hey look, 19-31. That ironically wasn’t his highest point total but it still came out to 50.

His best point total was 52 points in the 2011-12 season with 12 goals and 40 assists. Most recently he’s had two straight seasons of five goals and nine assists for 14 points. His hopes to be a veteran leader in the clubhouse the same way Brooks Orpik was.

In other sports in this city we’ve seen positive impacts from seasoned veterans. That includes when the Washington Wizards had Paul Pierce and the Nationals had Jayson Werth. Those presences improved the locker room and clubhouse and they had a couple of clutch moments to boot.

I think the Chara addition shores up the bottom four of the defense. Up top you’ll have Brenden Dillon and John Carlson, in the middle you’ve got Dmitry Orlov and Justin Schultz and finally Chara and Jensen, or whoever else fits on the right.