Zdeno Chara hit the ice in a Washington Capitals practice uniform for the first time late Tuesday afternoon. His 6-foot-9, 250-pound stature was hard to miss.

Wednesday morning, Chara participated in his first on-ice session with the team’s main group, where he skated with captain Alex Ovechkin and others. Chara, who was the longtime captain of the Boston Bruins, signed a one-year, $795,000 deal with the Capitals last week.

The Slovak defenseman cleared physicals Tuesday morning after quarantining under the NHL’s coronavirus protocols. The Capitals open their season Jan. 14 at Buffalo, so Chara has about a week to learn Coach Peter Laviolette’s system.

“It was exciting to put the Washington Capitals jersey on and it was nice to be on the ice after the quarantine protocol,” Chara said Wednesday. “I think that it was really nice to meet all the guys, get that practice in and do the drills, get in the flow and work hard.”

Chara said he has worked out in his hotel while in quarantine in Washington, feels “pretty good” and expects to be good to go when the season starts.

“He’s been a massive presence on the ice,” Laviolette said. “Not only just by the size of him but by the way he plays the game and the success that he’s had on the ice. But there is more to it than that. There’s a person inside, as well.””

Chara was on the third defensive pair with Nick Jensen on Wednesday. The initial pairing would appear to push Jonas Siegenthaler out of the team’s regular blue line rotation. Siegenthaler played in 64 games last season and tallied two goals and seven assists.

Laviolette did not elaborate on whether the Chara and Jensen pairing would be permanent, but did indicate he would prefer to not shake up the top two d-pairs. John Carlson has been skating with Dmitry Orlov on the top pairing the last few days at camp, while Brenden Dillon has been paired with newcomer Justin Schultz.

“There are pairs in place and we didn’t want to just throw everything away, and what we had worked on in the last couple days, so what we would like to do is get to the scrimmage and just evaluate and see how things look,” Laviolette said.

Chara, 43, played in 68 games last year with Boston and was typically paired with Charlie McAvoy. The Bruins told Chara during negotiations this offseason that if he returned, he would have a reduced role.

In Washington he has a clean slate but no promises for his future. Chara has said he still feels like he can contribute and play at a high level.

Jensen, who had an up-and-down season last year with Washington but trended upward late, is also back with something to prove. Jensen said being on a pair with Chara on Wednesday was a great experience and little adjustments had to be made on his end.

“The experience of being able to play with a player of that status, who’s been in this league forever and has as many games and achievements as he does, had to take a minute to kind of take that in,” Jensen said. “But as a player, he’s real easy to jump right in with . . . everything that he was doing I was already on the same page with and is pretty close to how I already play my game, so it didn’t take much to jell with him out there.”

Comments are not available on this story.