Two days before Thanksgiving, Tuesday’s loss to the Blues showed how thankful the Bruins are to have Zdeno Chara around, even at 39-years old.

After a solid first period for the Bruins that saw them jump out to a 1-0 lead behind the franchise’s 20,000th goal off the stick of David Backes – his first against his former team — the wheels fell off in the second period.

After a minute and a half shift in the second period — his lone of the frame — Chara left the ice and failed to return. The Blues would go on to score three times in the middle stanza en route to a 4-2 victory at TD Garden.

“No. I’ve got nothing on him yet,” head coach Claude Julien told the media following the contest.

The loss of Chara is certainly not the reason as to why the Bruins failed to pick up two points on Tuesday. Overall the team played a solid game, but the Blues capitalized on the Bruins’ second period mistakes.

“I just think that in the second period, with five D’s, we got caught in our own end at times for long periods of time, and then we had some guys that were out there tired, and some of those guys were obviously D’s,” added Julien. “So it cost us a few goals there, and I think that’s where there was a big difference in the game because overall I thought our first period was good.”

Due to the loss of Chara, Julien had to mix his pairings up. For 19-year old rookie Brandon Carlo, last night was an adjustment for him, as he’s gotten very comfortable alongside Chara.

“I mean, obviously we just have to keep it simple and that is something I was struggling with you could say. Moving the puck up – I needed to do it a little bit faster and be a little bit stronger out there for sure,” said Carlo who logged 20:01 of ice time Tuesday night. “Definitely not happy with the end of my second period, you know, but I think that’s just mainly my responsibility to keep playing the way that I can no matter who is across from me.”

Once the defense settled down and got back to basics at the end of the second, they looked just like they did in the first period. But the pressure and extended zone time in their own end were too much for the Bruins to handle with just five defensemen.

“I think we maybe got away from our game a little bit and they were able to jump on us and get a few quick goals. Against a team like that, a team that creates turnovers, we just have to keep getting it in deep and especially when you go down to five D, it was all hands on deck,” John Michael-Liles told the media following the loss. “So, you’re trying to get some different pairings going and figure that out. Unfortunately, like I said, they got a couple quick goals and it ended up costing us.”

The Bruins announced Wednesday morning Chara suffered a lower-body injury and will not travel with the team to Ottawa for Thursdays game. The team will provide an update prior to Friday’s contest with the Flames.