"We have to do it by committee. We're going to need everybody to step up. We just lost our best defender. Teams hate playing against him, and that's the kind of impact he's got. Now, there's no individual that's going to step up and do his job more than we're going to have to do it as a group.
"No matter what you're going to miss a player like him. We just have to buckle down here and make sure we're all playing the best we can here to compensate for that."
Chara had one shot on goal in 9:04 of ice time on Tuesday. The Bruins captain has a goal, six points and a plus-12 rating in 19 games this season, and 179 goals and 581 points in 1,294 NHL games with the New York Islanders, Senators and Bruins.
"It's up to everybody, not just defensemen, but everybody on the ice to try and pick up that slack," defenseman John-Michael Liles said. "He's a big part of this team and he shuts things down so well with his size and his experience, so like I said, it's a matter of everybody just picking up that slack and trying to do the best we can."
Bruins forward David Pastrnak (upper body) practiced Wednesday and will travel to Ottawa. Julien expects him to play unless there's a setback.
Defenseman Kevan Miller has been cleared to play. He has not appeared in a game this season after having surgery to repair a broken left hand on Oct. 11.
"Good timing, I guess, if you want to say that," Miller said. "But obviously it's tough having [Chara] get injured right now. See what happens.
"He's a big hole to fill, but I think nobody can really fill that hole like [Chara] does. So it's the collective group, I think, that has to come together and play pretty well."
