On 8 March 2011, Chára hit and drove Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty's head directly into an off-ice stanchion at the end of the bench, knocking him unconscious. Pacioretty was taken off the ice on a stretcher. The extent of the injury was revealed the next day to be a non-displaced fracture to the 4th vertebra and a severe concussion. For delivering the hit, Chára received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct, and videotape of the play was sent to NHL vice president of hockey operations Mike Murphy for review. However, Murphy decided no further punishment was warranted, calling it a "hockey play". Although a criminal investigation was announced by the Montreal Police Service immediately after the incident, the Crown Prosecutor Office announced on 17 November 2011, that Chára would not be criminally charged. Pacioretty eventually made a full recovery, returning to Montreal the following season. The following season the NHL tested and later mandated a change to its rinks to have a curved glass at the end of the player benches to deflect similar impact.