On March 8, 2011, He was involved in an on-ice incident when he hit Montreal Canadiens player Max Pacioretty into the stanchion at the end of the bench in the boards. Pacioretty had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher and he suffered a severe concussion and a non-displaced fracture to the 4th vertebra. Chara received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct. The NHL VP of hockey operations Mike Murphy decided that no further punishment was going to be warranted. Despite this a criminal investigation was announced by the Montreal police