In case you missed it, hockey players are tough. In case that needed to be proven further, Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara is here for you. The mammoth-sized veteran had surgery on Tuesday to remove and replace the screws and plates in his jaw and is ready to go for Friday's game against the Buffalo Sabres. That is far from the impressive part, however. Chara will not be wearing a cage in his return when the two teams face-off at First Niagara Center.

The 6-foot-9 (and that's without skates), 250-pound, 42-year-old is no stranger to the injuries that happen on the ice and feels prepared to go without the extra protection.

His reasoning for playing without the cage was simple. He told reporters, "I feel like I can go without a cage."

This work that was done is from the broken jaw he suffered during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Blues after he was hit in the jaw with a puck. In true Chara fashion, he did return for Game 5 with his jaw wired and a full face mask. 

The team made an announcement that an infection caused the plates and screws to be removed. 

Chara explained the situation to reporters on Sunday:

"The area where the surgery was done got infected, which is kind of rare, but it does happen after six months. The decision was made to avoid maybe further troubleshooting with that area to basically remove all the plates and screws and clean it up. Pretty much the same [procedure], just instead of putting the plates in, it's gonna be taking the plates out."

Chara went on to discuss how they were doing everything they could to prevent a repeat injury to the area. Well, everything but wear a mask in his return, it seems. 

"We treated it, calmed it down and now it's just basically at that point where I think it's stable," he said. "But we want to avoid further possible repeat infections. We have to treat it." 

The long-time Bruin has a history of playing through pain and has shown up at everything from regular season to Stanley Cup Playoff games with severe injuries skating on anyway, so his perseverance through injury is not surprising.