Sometime in the future, the Bruins will have to live permanently without Zdeno Chara.

BOSTON — Sometime in the future, the Bruins will have to live permanently without Zdeno Chara. His contract expires in 2018, when he’ll be 41 years old, an age when even 6-foot-9 monsters must concede to Father Time.

On Thursday, the Bruins’ temporary window without Chara will come to an end. After missing seven weeks and 19 games with a torn knee ligament, Chara is expected back in the lineup against the Blackhawks.

The Bruins went 11-7-1 without Chara. It was an extended look into life without Chara. They have a succession plan in place for when Chara is gone, and they got a sneak preview of that.

Dougie Hamilton projects as the Bruins' eventual clear-cut No. 1 defenseman. Hamilton's progress over his first three seasons is an indication the still-growing 21-year-old should be a full-fledged go-to defenseman by the time he hits his prime and Chara's No. 33 is in the rafters rather than on the ice.

So it was an interesting window the past seven weeks into how Hamilton could fill in. The answer was a mixed bag, with Hamilton showing plenty of potential, if also that he's not quite ready for the full-time role.

“A lot to be taken [filling in for Chara], but he’s done the job,” coach Claude Julien said Thursday. “He’s had some good games, some average games but I think we can say that about everybody on the team.”

It seemed Hamilton's minutes would skyrocket immediately after Chara's injury Oct. 23, and his play at first went right along on that upward trend. Hamilton was the best player on the ice Oct. 25 in Toronto, picking up a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win. Three nights later, he received a career-high 28:32 of ice time against the Wild.

Like the team, Hamilton had peaks and valleys over the coming weeks. On Nov. 6, he had a goal and two assists in a win over the Oilers; a week later, he was a minus-3 at Montreal, kicking himself to pick up his performance when the Canadiens terrorized him for four of their five goals.

He bottomed out Nov. 21 in Columbus. When Blue Jacket forward Jack Skille burst around Hamilton for a breakaway bid with 9:24 left, Julien had seen enough of his young defenseman. Hamilton was benched the rest of the way in a shootout victory.

Hamilton was dropped down to the second pairing for the next few games, but his game has again picked up and he was back on the top pairing by the end of last week's West Coast trip. Hamilton has six points over the last six games, including the overtime winner against Winnipeg two weeks ago.

Chara and Hamilton are expected to be the top pairing Thursday against Chicago.

“It's obviously a learning experience with more responsibility,” Hamilton said.”"I'm pretty happy with it. I think we did pretty well without him. There was some times where I'm playing [against the] first line and 28 minutes, and other times where you're playing third line and 18 minutes.

“But I think that's kind of normal. You're not going to play your best every game and there are going to be games where you're not feeling your best and maybe that stuff happens, but maybe I think for me, just try to have good ones instead of little bad ones.”

Overall, Hamilton's minutes bumped up from 21:39 of average ice time when Chara was healthy to 22:26 in games without Chara. Possession numbers indicate Hamilton's play dipped a little without Chara — no surprise — but he held his own. Chara has a 56.5 Corsi-for percentage this season with Chara, 54.2 without him.

“It's a lot more fun to have that responsibility than having that feeling that if you screw up, you're benched and you're not playing the next game,” Hamilton said. “You want to just have that trust that your coach is going to believe in you and have the ability to make some mistakes and it's just a mistake, something that happened in that game where you're not feeling great or something like that instead of your actual play. It's nice to have that leash.”

Down the line when Chara is gone, the Bruins will be leaning on Hamilton even more than they did over the past month. Getting him into a non-Chara situation now and letting him play through some mistakes without a 6-foot-9 partner to rely on may pay off down the line.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Julien said. “It’s basically being given a bigger role. Sometimes you’re careful with that because sometimes it’s early in his career and you don’t want to put too much on his shoulders, but at the same time he’s handled it fairly well.”