from Joe Haggerty of CSNNE,

Should Chara have popped into his neighbor’s party given that the Cup’s appearance came courtesy of the 6-foot-9 defenseman and his B’s teammates falling in Game 6 of the Cup Final.

Chara was a minus-6 in the final three B’s losses to the Blackhawks in the Final, and was on the ice for a boatload of goals against as Boston’s defensive stalwarts collapsed against Chicago’s best players. A hip pointer helped add to Chara’s struggles, but it’s clear the Blackhawks really gave the B’s shutdown pair of Chara and Dennis Seidenberg some major problems.

While B’s teammates like Chris Kelly, Shawn Thornton and Tuukka Rask have talked about how much the “loss still stings” and how much it “sucked” less than two months later, Chara had no problems posing with Hossa in front of Lord Stanley’s Cup.

It was a 180 degree turn from the stoic, guarded persona Chara took on during the two month playoff run when he wasn’t interested in giving anything more than one sentence answers, and rightly put all focus into his efforts on the ice.

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