from Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star,

There comes a point in almost every playoff series involving the Boston Bruins where somebody is asked what’s going wrong. It’s an opposing player, and it’s always a star forward of some kind. Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, whoever you’ve got....

Now, it’s Max Pacioretty’s turn, and the answer is being given as Zdeno Chara, because that is a looming part of the answer every year. Chara blots out both sun and stars, more often than not. (Patrice Bergeron, too, but Chara tends to overshadow him.) And so when Montreal’s 40-goal man faced the media for the first time in the series, he was asked how the Slovak giant is causing him problems.

“Yeah, Chara’s been really good this series,” said Pacioretty, who had one assist in the first four games, and one goal in eight playoff games. “He goes into battles not worrying about someone playing the body on him. He’s so big, he doesn’t worry about that. He’s got a long reach. Obviously it’s difficult to play against, but it’s a great challenge for me. First four games, I’ll give him the edge. He was the better of the two players. But I can just worry about the future. There’s three games left. Enough for me to prove myself. This is real gut-check time.”

read on