Here’s a sentence that wasn’t a leading candidate to exist two days ago:

Zdeno Chara got a raw deal.

That was the case Thursday night, when the Bruins captain, as well as his teammates, often found themselves either in the penalty box or playing shorthanded throughout in the second and third periods of the team’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Sabres at TD Garden (recap).

The Bruins were called for seven minor penalties over the final two periods of regulation, five of which came in the second period. The officiating was questionable throughout the night, though no call was more far-fetched than the second-period boarding call against Chara in the Bruins’ zone. The B’s captain, who has been a controversial figure since Tuesday night’s hit on Max Pacioretty and the ensuing decision by the league not to suspend him, shoved former teammate Steve Montador around the bottom of the faceoff circle. After the Sabres blueliner fell to the ice, the momentum of both his forward strides and the shove him slowly sliding several feet into the boards. 

The call was suspect both at first glance and upon seeing the replays, but it wasn’t the only questionable one. Brad Marchand got a very iffy tripping call on which the referee hesitated in putting his arm up, and it contributed to a third-period 5-on-3 for the Sabres. One minute and 23 seconds later, the game was tied. 

“Tonight we just seemed to have a lot of tough calls going against us, like boarding on Zdeno Chara when a guy slides probably five feet on the ice before he does hit the boards," Claude Julien said after the game. "How do you explain that one?

“I know they can make mistakes and you have to accept that, but still it’s frustrating for teams to see those kinds of things happen over and over. It was one of those nights for us that we never got a break.”

Chara, whose words are already being listened to intently by hockey fans across the continent, didn’t see it fit to gripe about the officiating that left him and his team in a tight spot. He was respectful of the referees and the job they did. 

"It’s just a tough call for the referees," he said in a brief post-game session with the media. "You have to understand that they might not always be in a great or perfect position to see it."

In a world in which a potential criminal investigation can be launched over an interference penalty, it’s only slightly far-fetched to wonder: Was this just a bad night for the refs, or is this something the Bruins are going to have to worry about? Will a controversy-filled two days go on to haunt them for the rest of the regular season? Has their captain become an easy target for bogus calls?

Whatever the case is, Chara isn’t going to change the way he goes about his business on the ice. He made his first order of business in Thursday’s game to give Jason Pominville a good hit in the corner, much to the delight of a sold-out Garden crowd that chanted his name in support as he stepped on the ice for his first shift.

“I don’t see any reason to change my game or my style of play,” Chara said. “I’m going to continue to play physical and play hard. That’s my game and I don’t see any reason to change.”

As delighted and relieved as Chara was to return to game action for the first time since he was given an interference major and game misconduct with 15.8 seconds left in the second period Tuesday, it has not been an easy time for the B’s captain. He’s gotten flack around Boston before, from his captaincy to his level of toughness, but he’s never been considered a dirty player. 

Yet since the hit on Pacioretty occurred, Chara’s been cast in a light that he’s never been anywhere near. Chara has insisted he didn’t mean to harm Pacioretty, but he’s been cast as the villain of all villains in Montreal and the subject of an issue that has been argued over far more than it has been discussed. 

“I though he handled himself well today,” Julien said. “With everything that’s going on hasn’t been easy on anybody. We keep mentioning that we understand what the other guy is going through, but our guy, as he mentioned several times, did not deliberately do it. 

“When you don’t do something deliberate and you understand some people are accusing you of it, it’s not easy to deal with. And the way he handled himself tonight, he deserves a lot of credit.”

Regardless of what he deserves, he's had a lot to deal with. While it's nothing compared to what Pacioretty and his family are going through, Chara's new reputation and any new treatment on the ice might take getting used to. Adjustments might be made mentally, but he's not changing on the ice.