On a night with several legendary Bruins D-men, Charlie McAvoy delivered
"As long as I am here, I have all the motivation in the world to try and be that for my team and for myself and this city."
Charlie McAvoy has seen the highlight reels, just like the rest of us.
The 26-year-old skater quickly recoiled at the thought of putting himself in the same rarified air as Boston’s two greatest blueliners in Bobby Orr and Ray Bourque.
But as McAvoy — like the other 19,000 in attendance for Sunday’s Centennial Game ceremony — watched clips of Orr glide across the frozen sheet and Bourque uncork howitzers from the point, the message was reinforced once again.
Be it Shore, Orr, Park, Bourque, or Chara — some of the greatest Bruins teams in the franchise’s 100-year history have been anchored by dominant, star defensemen.
And on Sunday night against the Habs, McAvoy delivered.
“You see those guys there and highlights of guys, and there’s always been just incredibly special players that have been here and worn this jersey,” McAvoy said Sunday. “So as long as I am here, I have all the motivation in the world to try and be that for my team and for myself and this city.”
Less than a week after pledging that the “dam is gonna break” with Boston’s season-long scoring drought, McAvoy fueled the Bruins’ 6-3 win over the Habs — lighting the lamp twice and logging 23:00 of ice time in Boston’s latest bout with its Original Six nemesis.
“Charlie, when he takes over like that, he’s special,” Brad Marchand said postgame. “He’s one of the top defensemen in the league for a reason. He can take over a game by himself. He did that tonight. He was on a mission.”
It didn’t take McAvoy long to put himself on the brink of being the first Bruins defenseman to score a hat trick since Zdeno Chara in 2011.
With Boston in need of a spark after a listless showing during Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Penguins, McAvoy opened the scoring at 11:45 in the first period — beating Montreal goalie Cayden Primeau with a wraparound tally.
It was the jolt the Bruins needed, with both David Pastrnak and Charlie Coyle finding twine just 55 and 75 seconds later, respectively, to give Boston a commanding 3-0 advantage.
“We want to be scoring, obviously. It’s no secret that this year has been pretty difficult to do so,” McAvoy said. “A lot of the numbers aren’t what guys want them to be.
“But we’re hoping that we turn this leaf over. … You’re seeing that a lot of it is just coming from hard work. So that’s, that’s good, that’s something that we can do, that we can control every night.”
That hard work was put on display in the opening seconds of the second period. With Nikita Zadorov in the sin bin for a delay-of-game infraction, McAvoy struck off a shorthanded scoring bid.
As he hit the ice in hopes of clearing a puck from Mike Matheson, the Habs skater’s feed back out to the point skittered right to McAvoy. With no resistance in front of him, McAvoy skated in alone against Primeau — beating him with a quick backhand shot to make it a 4-0 game at the time.
“It certainly makes a big difference in our group,” Joe Sacco said of McAvoy’s assertiveness. “And I thought he did it the right way tonight. He was following up the play, he was moving his feet.
“He was skating in the right direction all the time. But just when he plays like that, we become a hard team to play against. And like I said, he kept the game in front of him, which I thought was the most important thing — everything was in front of him. Nobody was behind him. And so he had a huge impact in the game today.”
As he celebrated his second tally, McAvoy grabbed the spoked-B stamped onto the front of his sweater and kissed it.
It was a fitting display on an evening that honored 100 years of Bruins history and decades of dominant D-men — showcased by the latest top blueliner to don the black and gold.
“I thought about it after the first goal, and that was what I should have done,” McAvoy said of his celly. So I ended up scoring again. Just love for the city, this organization, and just how amazing it is to be a part of it.”
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