- Zdeno Chara plays a farewell game Friday in his hometown of Trencin, Slovakia
- Jaromir Jagr, Ray Bourque, Patrice Bergeron and Anze Kopitar are all on the guest list
- Read below for the full rosters and what Chara said about finally saying goodbye at home
Zdeno Chara is putting the skates back on Friday, and the guest list reads like a Hall of Fame induction weekend.
The 49-year-old hosts a farewell game called Zee’s Final Shift on Aug. 21 at Pavol Demitra Ice Arena in Trencin, Slovakia, the city he grew up in. Jaromir Jagr, Ray Bourque, Patrice Bergeron, Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa, Mark Recchi, Ziggy Palffy and David Pastrnak are all making the trip. Proceeds go to several Slovak schools.
Petr Cech, the former Chelsea and Arsenal goalkeeper, is dressing in net for Team World.
Chara spoke by phone from Slovakia with Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com about the group coming to see him off.
“I’m super, super grateful for every player who is coming and making time during their offseason to travel and pay some sort of respect,” Chara said. “Many of them I haven’t seen for many years.”
Hossa is the reason this exists. He held his own charity game in Trencin three years ago with Chara in the building, and when the same organizers came calling, Chara signed on.
The rosters split into Team Boston and Team Svet, and the event’s Instagram account laid them out:
Twenty-one Bruins past and present are making the trip, including 13 from the 2011 Stanley Cup team and every defenseman who dressed in that Final. Tim Thomas is coaching Team Boston instead of playing, and Jaroslav Halak takes the crease.
Brad Marchand was on the original roster before offseason surgery knocked him out. Jozef Stumpel replaced him, which leaves Pastrnak as the only active NHL player in the game.
Leaving as a teenager meant he never got the hometown sendoff most Slovak stars get. Almost all of those 24 seasons were played in North America.
“Other players who came from here, they had a more significant chance to say goodbye to fans and retire,” he said. “Once I retired I never thought about this, I never looked for that attention, but he convinced me.”
These days Chara works as a hockey operations advisor with the Bruins and spends more time on marathons and Ironmans than on the ice. He is a regular sight on Slovak roads on his bike.
“Definitely I feel a lot more comfortable now doing Ironmans than skating,” he said.
Puck drop is noon ET. The day after, the whole group is golfing, biking and eating barbecue in Chara’s hometown.
