“When the team is home, I’m here every practice,” he said. “I want to be here. I want to be present. I want to be with the group as much as I can. I know as a player when you had somebody not [there], it’s just not working, it’s not the same. So, I want to be here for the coaches, players, whoever needs me, and then when the team is away I go see prospects or go see college games, go see Providence guys, try to help out there and to just give feedback when I see something.”<\/p>\n
Chara sat down with NHL.com recently to talk about his new role with the Bruins, how he’s finding life after hockey, and some off-ice pursuits that have him excited.<\/p>\n
How have you found your new role with the Bruins?<\/p>\n
“I have to say I’m happy to be back. Honestly, I am. I really enjoy being around and learning. I’m learning again, something that in a way I understood, but now [I’m] learning there is a lot more behind the scenes and preparation and work that goes into helping players, helping the team, making connections, making sure that guys understand what we’re asking from them.”<\/p>\n
What has been the most eye-opening part?<\/p>\n
“I still like trying to understand better the analytics of the game. There is so much now, the data and stats that people are tracking and you’re getting feedback, so that is one thing I need to learn a lot more about. But just understanding that every player is different, everybody has a different personality, you have to approach them differently. But the biggest thing is just to listen. You have to listen to what they’re saying, how they’re saying it, understand their feelings, understand what they need and find the solution how to help. That’s a lot of times not easy, but so far it’s been really fun, finding ways to try and help.”<\/p>\n
Do you have a desire to end up in coaching or management?<\/p>\n
“Right now, no. I feel very comfortable right now. I can’t commit to full time because I want to be with my kids and present with my family, but I don’t know what the future will hold. Right now, I’m really comfortable and I love what I do. I honestly love coming to the rink, I love being with the guys and sharing my experiences and sharing my advice, so right now I’m really good where I’m at. Honestly, I don’t seek any titles. I have no ego to go somewhere like upstairs or on the bench. I just feel really good where I’m at.”<\/p>\n
What has IRONMAN and marathon training done for you, post-career?<\/p>\n
“It makes me happy. It really does. As much as the amount of time and training that goes into it is way more than hockey — way more — there is something about it, when I go and sign up for the race and I do the races, it’s just so hard. That’s probably what draws me to it because it’s such a badass sport. Doing IRONMANs is not a joke. When you do them it’s like you complete them and you’re kind of sitting there and you’re all exhausted and you’re beat up, but it’s the feeling of the satisfaction of completing training, training paying off, meeting people, being in that atmosphere. Like, I’m hunting it. I want it. And the feeling of afterwards, it’s like I’m truly happy. I’m truly satisfied. I think satisfaction is more the word. You are also happy afterwards, maybe two weeks later, when you can walk again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“When the team is home, I’m here every practice,” he said. “I want to be here. I want…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-394934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}