Here’s what we know about Charlie McAvoy’s injury
Charlie McAvoy left Saturday’s overtime win against Montreal before the end of his first shift with a lower-body injury. On Tuesday, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney announced that McAvoy sprained his left MCL and will be out at least four weeks.
McAvoy has played the second-most minutes per game for the second-place Bruins this season, tallying seven goals and 25 assists alongside Zdeno Chara on the first line. Boston’s been quiet about the injury that forced the 20-year old to skate off the ice and disappear down the tunnel 37 seconds into Saturday’s matchup with the Canadiens.
Here’s what you need to know about the injury that sidelined the Bruins’ star rookie:
How it happened
Shortly after puck drop Saturday, McAvoy tripped over Brendan Gallagher’s stick and fell awkwardly to the ice. The initial camera angle appeared to show the Bruins defenseman recieving a two-handed slash to the foot from Montreal’s Gallagher, but a second replay showed that the stick did not connect. Instead, the stick swept McAvoy’s right leg out from under him and he crashed to the ice.
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The Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa reported that McAvoy has been wearing a brace on his left knee since the injury. His left leg did not make contact with Gallagher’s stick or take the brunt of McAvoy’s fall, but it certainly could have been twisted awkwardly when he tripped.
What the Bruins are saying about the injury
After the game, head coach Bruce Cassidy wasn’t sure what had caused the injury, but with only 37 seconds of tape to search through he said it shouldn’t be too hard to find.
“Hopefully it’s not serious,” Cassidy said Saturday. “It didn’t look serious at the time, but I don’t really know.”
On Monday, Cassidy said that he had nothing new to report on the injury and ruled McAvoy out for Tuesday night. He added that the rookie was scheduled for an evaluation Monday afternoon. The team met at the Garden for a group picture at center ice Monday morning, per the Boston Herald, and McAvoy was wearing sandals instead of skates.
The choice of footwear led to speculation about the severity of the injury, but the guesswork ended when Sweeney set a date, four weeks from Tuesday, for re-evaluating McAvoy’s MCL sprain.
How the injury will affect Boston going forward
For the immediate McAvoy-less future, Cassidy will slot Brandon Carlo beside Chara on the first line and pair Torey Krug with Kevan Miller on the second. A rotation featuring Nick Holden, Adam McQuaid, and Matt Grzelcyk will round out the Bruins’ blue-liners.
“We can go different directions,” said Cassidy. “Carlo’s an easy one to slot back in with Zee, they’ve played together. Krug was with Miller; Grizz has been with Miller if he goes back in. We’re going to keep Holden in, he can play left or right…It’s not set in stone what the six are gonna be.”
Puck drop against the Red Wings won’t be the first time Carlo and Chara team up. The 6-foot-5 Carlo and 6-foot-6 Chara were paired together last season, as well as during the four-game stretch McAvoy missed in January after surgery to treat an abnormal heart rhythm.
“This is new. We missed him for a pocket earlier this year, and we survived it,” Cassidy said Monday. “We’ll see what happens going forward with him and how extensive his injury will be. Until we know that, it’s hard to get anxious.”
The Bruins now know the extent of the injury: at least one month without a first-line defenseman and point man on the No. 2 power-play unit.
Boston will likely be missing Patrice Bergeron (fractured right foot) and Tuukka Rask (minor lower-body injury) as well as the former Boston University star when they line up against Detroit. The Bruins currently sit in second place in the Atlantic Division, six points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning with 19 games left on the regular season docket.
