The injury to Dennis Seidenberg left the Boston Bruins with a realization of reality.

The Bruins’ latest injury could become a nightmare.

Making his preseason debut on Thursday night against the New York Rangers, Zdeno Chara was hoping to get his feet wet in his first game action since April. Unfortunately for the Bruins captain, he only tallied three shifts and 1:57 of ice time and left the game early due to an upper-body injury.

Last year, the 6-foot-9 defenseman suffered a knee injury in October that cost him about a month and a half of the 2014-15 campaign. He played the latter part of the season with a fractured left tibia after taking a puck to the ankle in a game against the Maple Leafs on April 4.

The extent of Chara’s recent injury is unknown, but for now Bruins fans are holding their breath that it is not too severe.

We’ll have more updates on this development when they are made available. Stay tuned.

(Update: 9:24 p.m.)

The first post-Chara departure update comes from Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald. We’ll hope to find out more from head coach Claude Julien during his postgame press conference:

Chara seen leaving dressing room. No word yet on severity, but no sling or obvious sign of serious injury

— steve conroy (@conroyherald) September 25, 2015