- Zdeno Chara matched his 108.8 mph hardest shot record at his farewell game in Slovakia
- The 49-year-old fired it during the second intermission in front of a sold-out building
- Read below for the video, the final score and what Jaromir Jagr said about him
Zdeno Chara is 49 years old and still has the hardest shot in hockey history.
The former Bruins captain lined one up during the second intermission of his farewell game Friday in Trencin, Slovakia, and the display lit up 108.8 mph. That is the exact number he put on the board at the 2012 All-Star Skills Competition, and nobody in the NHL has beaten it since.
Watch him do it again 14 years later:
He had already raised his own bar once. Chara hit 105.9 mph at the 2011 skills event, then went to Ottawa a year later and pushed it to 108.8.
Zee’s Final Shift was a charity exhibition Chara put together at the sold-out Pavol Demitra Ice Arena in his hometown. Proceeds went to Slovak schools.
Team Boston won the game 13-8. The World side took the bonus shootout on a Miroslav Satan goal, with Patrice Bergeron, Anze Kopitar, David Pastrnak and Marian Hossa also scoring in the breakaway round.
Chara dressed for both rosters.
Ray Bourque and Bergeron handed him a commemorative jersey before the opening faceoff. A long list of Bruins alumni flew over for it:
Pastrnak made the trip from the current roster:
Brad Marchand, Marco Sturm and Duncan Keith were all on the original guest list and had to pull out for health or personal reasons.
Jagr faced Chara for the better part of two decades, and he was asked afterward what made him so hard to play against.
“Zdeno was a player I could never find a recipe for,” Jagr told TV JOJ, per TASR. “Against other players I could always use some advantage. If my opponents were faster, I beat them with strength. Against Zdeno that did not work.”
Emotion took over in the 38th minute. Fans in Trencin chanted Pavol Demitra’s name, the way they always do, then turned their applause toward Chara’s father Zdenek, who died in April.
Chara played 24 seasons and 1,680 games for the Islanders, Senators, Bruins and Capitals. He won the Norris Trophy in 2009, captained Boston to the Stanley Cup in 2011 and went into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2025.
The record he set at 35 is still his at 49.
