On Tuesday morning, before his teammates took the ice, Zdeno Chara stood in a hallway on the third floor of TD Garden stickhandling and shooting at the wall. The Bruins captain wore a brace on his left knee, necessary given the tear in his posterior cruciate ligament.
Chara is 12 days from the injury, which occurred on a first-period hit on the Islanders’ John Tavares Oct. 23.
“Just feeling the puck a little bit,” Chara said of his morning activity, talking to the media for the first time since the injury.
“He’s having fun,” said coach Claude Julien. “The best way he can. His situation hasn’t changed. It is 4-6 weeks [estimated for recovery]. So, that hasn’t changed.”
Chara, who said he feels “all right,” is expected to avoid surgery. That’s what general manager Peter Chiarelli had said, that Chara would not need to have the knee surgically repaired.
Asked if he was relieved, Chara said, “Well, we’ll see. It’s always nice to be able to avoid surgery, so we’ll see how it goes and obviously it was good news.”
The defenseman said that he initially felt nothing after the hit when his knee appeared to strike Tavares’s knee. He certainly didn’t imagine that it would keep him out for more than a month.
“The shift after, I felt it,’’ Chara said. “Some discomfort. But no pain or anything like that. I just kind of went into the locker room just to check on things, but found out there’s more to it.”
Nor does he know any more about when he might be able to return.
“There is not a timeline right now,’’ Chara said. “I wish I could tell you guys exactly when I’m going to return, but at this point I think it’s just really such a slow process that who knows where it’s going, what the day is going to be?”
The Bruins have been doing their best to find consistency and results since they’ve lost Chara and fellow defensemen Kevan Miller and Torey Krug. The team managed to win three of its four games after Chara’s injury, the lone blemish a third-period collapse against the Wild.
“It’s hard to watch on the sideline, but my focus right now is obviously getting better and being back as soon as I can,” Chara said. “As much as I would like to play, I think that my focus right now is to get better off the ice.
“You want to be playing, that’s for sure. At the same time, you’ve got to do your part rehabbing and try to get back as soon as possible.”
Krejci sits out
The Bruins were without David Krejci again in Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime victory over Florida, with the center not taking morning skate and being ruled out by Julien with an undisclosed injury. But there’s good news amid the bad.
“He’s going to be out [Tuesday], but we don’t think it’s a real major issue,” Julien said. “He should be back soon.”
It was the second straight game that Krejci missed, after he was a late scratch Saturday against Ottawa, paving the way for Matt Fraser to enter the game and score two goals.
Krejci also missed the first three games of the season with what WEEI.com reported was a hip injury. Julien has declined to say whether the two injuries are related.
Chris Kelly again filled in for Krejci as the top-line center, skating with Milan Lucic and Seth Griffith.
Homecoming
Shawn Thornton returned to the Garden for the first time as a member of an opposing team. Panthers coach Gerard Gallant had Thornton’s line start the game so the winger’s name was announced, garnering a loud ovation.
He also got a standing ovation with 6:47 left in the first period, as a tribute to him played on the videoboard.
“It’s pretty touching, you know,” said Thornton, whose parents had flown in for the game.
“Very, very kind . . . To get a standing ovation in a visiting arena is pretty special and I appreciate it. The fans have always been great to me here and again tonight. It’s pretty nice.”
Said Tuukka Rask, “It was great. I think it was the loudest this year by far in the building. It was kind of emotional there seeing all those moments we spent together and had together.”
Thornton was not signed as an unrestricted free agent by the Bruins this summer, and instead took a two-year, $2.4 million deal to go to Florida.
It was, though, not just a game of ovations for Thornton. He also played 16:03, the most he’d played in any game in his NHL career.
But he didn’t get the one thing he’d wanted in the game: a goal on his close friend Rask, with whom he owns a boat.
“I’m happy he didn’t get that goal,” Rask said.
Back on ice
Miller skated for the second straight day. He is still out indefinitely, but Julien continues to call the defenseman’s recovery from a dislocated right shoulder “on track.” . . . Matt Bartkowski was a healthy scratch for the third straight game . . . Providence forwards Brian Ferlin and Matt Lindblad watched the game from the press box . . . The Bruins did not have a power-play chance for the first time this season.
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @amaliebenjamin.