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How storylines change.
Before two missed hits to the head, Jordan Binnington's flop and the Blues scoring the game-winner after Noel Acciari was tripped in front of an official, there was Zdeno Chara playing through a broken jaw. Many wondered if he'd even be back for the series with the odds stacked hard against him.
The cameras even panned completely around him when he was introduced for warmups, prolonging the deafening ovation.
"His injury is a little more serious than some," said Bruce Cassidy of Chara. "He was medically cleared with some warnings and he made the decision to play. Inspirational for us, good player for us, we knew he wouldn't be 100 percent so we were happy to have him out there. But it speaks a lot to his character and his will to play."
Chara laid a hit right after the drop of the puck. From the start, he seemed normal. The only difference to his play was if he could avoid contact, he did. The veteran's first clear indication of that was when Brayden Schenn went to run him into the boards and Chara stepped back, causing Schenn to rattle the glass down that side of the ice.
Despite his solid play, Cassidy headed into the night with uncertainty surrounding how much Chara could handle on the ice causing him to do something he hadn't done to that point in these playoffs.
"Listen, the reason we (carried seven defensemen) is that we weren't sure on Zee," said Cassidy. "How much was he going to be able to play? How was the injury going to affect his breathing etc? So we covered ourselves. I'm not going to get into every detail about our injuries but we felt that seven (defensemen) was the best way to go to make sure that we were covered in case one of our defenseman wasn't able to continue throughout the game."
Cassidy opted to dress Steven Kampfer as a seventh defenseman over David Backes. The thought heading into Game 5 was they'd play Chara in late-period defensive zone faceoffs and penalty kills; Moore and Kampfer would be used in situations that best suited them.
But Chara ended up playing a total of 16:42, Moore played 15:25 and Kampfer wasn't even the lowest TOI for a defenseman at 8:48. Connor Clifton played the least amount of minutes at 6:40. But even though Kampfer wasn't on the ice for any goals-against and hit the crossbar just minutes into the third period, his play in his own end wasn't ideal.
"On the back end, I'll talk to Kevin (Dean) about (rolling seven d-man) to see how that rotation went," said Cassidy. "For the most part up front, I don't think it's that difficult, we've shortened our bench in the past, the players are used to it, we're not a typical four-line team, we juggle lines a lot so guys are used to moving around."
For the most part, Chara's play was good. But his communication on the ice was almost non-existent.
"Not a whole lot," said Tuukka Rask of Chara's ability to communicate on the ice.
"Oh it was great," said Rask of having his captain on the ice Thursday night. "It shows his character. It takes a lot for him not to play. Yeah, he's got some big balls."