By Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com Bruins InsiderFollow @hackswithhaggs
Zdeno Chara wasnt a presence at the teams annual golf tournament or at the State of the Bruins event on Mondaya pair of season-opening events that both normally feature the 6-foot-9 Bruins captain -- and it now appears the towering defenseman may miss the opening of training camp.
Chara has left the team for a few days to return to his native Slovakia to attend the funeral services for good friend Pavol Demitra, his fellow Slovakian hockey player, who lost his life in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash last week. Chara and Demitra were neighbors in Slovakia during the offseason, and the former WildCanucks offensive star was one of the guests that attended Charas Stanley Cup party in his native country over the summer.
So the Bs captain took Demitras loss very personally and will be in Slovakia until the services that are scheduled for the weekendwhich is also when the Bruins camp is set to officially open on the ice.
Both Chara and his agent Matt Keatorwho represented the Bs Captain and Demitra -- were scheduled to fly out to Slovakia at the beginning of the week.
Hes headed back to Slovakia for Demitras funeral, confirmed Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli. I think the funeral might be Saturday, so he may not be here for the start of camp.
Chiarelli said the only other player that wouldnt be in Boston for the beginning of training camp would be Yuri Alexandrov, the Russian defenseman that has been reassigned to the KHL St. Petersburg squad this season after an uneven year with the Providence Bruins in 2010-11.
Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs