WILMINGTON - With the Bruins trailing yet again Saturday night and eager to lead his teammates out of their funk, Zdeno Chara took it upon himself to expand his job description.
“The No. 1 priority is to play defense, play top lines, and shut them down,’’ Chara said. “But in a situation like that, when you’re down three goals, you’re forced to go and take some chances. You have to try and rush. You have to try and get things going. I just felt that sometimes, offense is the best defense. Sometimes it works. So I worked really hard every shift. I went all-out every shift. Every time I had a chance to help the offense, I did.’’
In the third period, facing a 3-0 deficit to the Islanders, Chara helped to set up the Bruins’ first goal when he jumped up in the play and served as a net-front presence. As Chara cut down Dwayne Roloson’s sightlines, Marc Savard put the puck into the net. Later in the period, Chara drew an interference penalty on Matt Moulson when he kicked off the breakout and joined the rush.
As often as Chara was up the ice, the captain sprinted back on defense to rub out opposing scoring chances in what ended up a 4-3 Boston win in a shootout. His teammates noticed.
“He played great,’’ said fellow defenseman Derek Morris. “That’s why he’s the Norris Trophy winner. Stuff like that, most people overlook that. They go, ‘Oh, he had a good period.’ But that’s what he did to turn the game around. He didn’t just do it selfishly. I think he does it because that’s what he needs to do at the time to win the game. That’s why he’s one of the best defensemen in the game.’’
Coach Claude Julien, however, is fond of a certain saying: Don’t try to do too much.
On one second-period play, Julien saw Chara do exactly that. Shawn Thornton had carried the puck into the offensive zone. Thornton could have dumped the puck deep or looked for help from his teammates. But Freddy Meyer poked the puck off Thornton’s stick and sent it skittering toward the blue line. Chara, as the left-side defenseman, should have been available to keep the puck in the offensive zone. But Chara, trying to force the play, was right on Thornton’s tail up the ice. As a result, John Tavares broke the other way to score the Islanders’ third goal.
“That’s an area where he would have been better to stay back,’’ Julien said. “Against Anaheim, we saw him forechecking at one point. That’s what happens sometimes when you fall behind. It almost gives you carte blanche to take chances. You can tell your coaches that we’re down and we have to take chances. It gives them the privilege of doing that.
“Last year, we were the team that made other teams pay for doing that. We took the lead and we played tough. Then teams ran out of patience, and whenever they took chances, we made them pay for it. We’ve got to be careful with that. It’s the thing I say to those guys: Less is more.’’
“There’s an urgency right now,’’ said Mark Recchi. “Guys are understanding that we’ve got to get this thing going. We have an opportunity [today] to be a game over .500 on a homestand where we really didn’t play well. If we can come out of here with a win, we can go on the road and continue to build this thing the right way.’’
The Bruins also spent part of practice working on the power play, which is 4 for 24 through four games.
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. 
