With grace and humility and a wide grin he rarely flashed when he was leading the Boston Bruins back to prominence, Zdeno Chara took his rightful place among Black and Gold immortals on Thursday night when his No. 33 was raised to the TD Garden rafters.

Surrounded by Bruins royalty — including fellow number retirees Bobby Orr, Johnny Bucyk, Terry O’Reilly, Rick Middleton, Cam Neely and Willie O’Ree — Chara remained more or less stoic. But he admitted later the emotions were tugging hard at him.

When he stepped to the podium, he was greet by a single leather lung in the balcony, who screamed “We love you, Z!” At the end of his speech, the entire crowd gave a hearty chant of “Thank You, Chara!”

“I almost cried there. I was very close,” said Chara afterward.

True to his inclusive nature as a captain, Chara did his best not to leave anyone or anything out. Of course, he touched on the 2011 Stanley Cup championship, without which he estimated this night would not have happened. Championships are how athletes are measured, he said. He hit on the heartbreaking and emotional days surrounding the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.

And he acknowledged that night in 2019 during the Stanley Cup Finals when, with his jaw shattered, the Garden crowd let out a deafening roar.

“I stood here half-broken, and you had my back,” Chara said.

The ’11 team had a huge presence on the night. Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Mark Recchi, Dennis Seidenberg and Tuukka Rask brought out the banner with his number on it. Before that, Chara made sure to mention every player on that team, from Bergeron and Krejci and Shawn Thornton to Shane Hnidy and Tomas Kaberle, all of them forever friends.

When it was time to raise the banner, he and his wife Tatiana let their children Elliz, Ben and Zack do the honors.

“Believe it or not, I think that’s the biggest award for me, seeing my children, my family doing it instead of me,” said Chara, fighting those emotions again in addressing reporters after the ceremony.

Zdeno Chara and his family raise his number into the rafters of the Garden during his number retirement ceremony. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

One of the most motivated and dedicated athletes that has come through Boston, even in retirement, Chara gave an insight on what made him tick, how he went from a gangly kid who fell and broke his teeth the first time he stepped on the ice back home in Trencin, Slovakia to a Hockey Hall of Famer.

“To be honest, I played with fear. I played with fear of failing every game,” Chara said. “That pushed pushed me to be playing with determination not to fail. I didn’t want to fail my teammates, my team. So I went into every game, every day just prove, prove, and do you job and do your best. That was my mentality….You look back and you wonder how I did it. But it helped me a lot to play with that fear.”

If Chara was the ultimate lead-by-example captain, Andrew Ference was the one who often articulated the vibe and ethic of those teams. Ference was at times Chara’s defense partner as well, so it made sense that he would be the emcee. He was a natural, hitting with humor amid the highlights in his speech.

“The hardest part is trimming it down,” said Ference before the event. “You think of Z and he’s a complicated guy. It’s not straight forward. He’s a real estate agent, he’s got a financial degree. He’s a very curious individual, running his Ironmans and playing hockey like crazy. Even the hockey part’s complicated. I go back pretty far. I played junior against him. I played in Portland, Oregon and he played in St. George. I was a 16-year-old kid and I’m looking across at this giant. Then he stayed in Edmonton to work out and train before he made the NHL.

“I got to know him pretty young. And he wasn’t good. He actually wasn’t that great of a hockey player. And to see him go from that age…and you see the progression, you see the work, you see the attitude and the construction of his career. Even when he was flying high and making All-Star games and doing all that, he was taking private skating lessons with figure skaters.

“He legitimately made me better, he made me a better professional and seeing north stars like him and a couple of others I played with that show you the way to be a professional. For an average guy like – and that’s not to put myself down – but I’m a pretty average player, I didn’t have an average career because I followed guys like that.”

Zdeno Chara acknowledges the fans during his number retirement ceremony at TD Garden. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

Bergeron was just 21 when Chara arrived in Boston. With Chara leading the way, Bergeron, a quiet, shy Quebecois at first, grew into a player and person who would become the automatic, no-questions-asked successor as the next Bruins captain after Chara left.

“My first encounter with him was in gym, which is very fitting but the way,” Bergeron said. “I just saw firsthand his work ethic and how much he was excited to be around and so down to earth and ready to lead and learn, too. Just that conversation made me realize he was a special person. I knew he was a special player. But to see the dedication – and it was in July – to see him stay in the gym for so long, helping me with things and wanting to know more about players and what to expect. From the get-go I knew he was the right guy to lead this organization.”

Ray Bourque had left the organization in 2000 at the trade deadline, in search of the Stanley Cup that he eventually captured in Colorado. But he will always bleed the Black and Gold. While he was no longer in the room, the former Bruin captain recognized what Chara’s arrival meant to the organization.

Said Bourque: “I think we became the Bruins again.”