Boston Bruins

Charlie McAvoy is playing his best hockey during Bruins’ latest surge

"He's definitely playing the best hockey I've seen from him.”

Charlie McAvoy has been on a roll since the calendar flipped to 2026. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)

By Conor Ryan

January 23, 2026

4 minutes to read

Charlie McAvoy was ready to put 2025 in the rearview mirror.

This past year was one of frustration and several health-related setbacks for the Bruins defenseman.

As Boston struggled to pull itself out of a season-ending tailspin in 2024-25, McAvoy missed the final two months of the regular season after suffering a shoulder injury during the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

A subsequent infection in said shoulder required an extended stay at Mass. General Hospital — where he underwent an irrigation and debridement procedure and needed a steady regiment of antibiotics that carried over into April.

Even the clean slate brought upon by a new season was undercut by McAvoy landing on the shelf once again with a brutal injury this fall.

In a win over Montreal on Nov. 15, a slap shot caught McAvoy square in the mouth — fracturing his jaw and knocking out several teeth. He returned to game action less than a month later, despite having lost 20 pounds on a liquid diet and needing a metal plate in his shattered joint.

The remnants of that injury are still evident, be it the bubble that McAvoy dons on the ice or the scar (and missing teeth) that can be easily gleaned when he fields questions from the media.

But through the first three weeks of 2026, McAvoy is feeling good about where his game is at.

“I tried to keep all that in 2025 was what I said,” McAvoy said Thursday of his previous injury woes. “It wasn’t my year. And since we turned the calendar, it’s been a great month of January for me and my family. Bumps and bruises are a part of it. Just hope it’s nothing more than that.”

It should come as little surprise that the Bruins are playing some of their best hockey at the same time that McAvoy is dominating out on the ice.

Following Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Golden Knights, the Bruins have won nine out of their last 11 games. During that stretch, McAvoy has posted 11 points (three goals, eight points), sported a plus-eight rating, and averaged 24:49 of ice time per contest.

“He’s been outstanding as of late, for a while now,” Marco Sturm said of his top defenseman on Thursday. “He’s like a horse out there. It’s almost like — you want to play him for 60 minutes, because he does everything right, right now.

“I’m just very happy with the way he’s playing right now, and especially those crucial moments in the game where we need to stay calm and be in the right spot,” he added. “And he’s been there for us all year long.”

McAvoy had his fingerprints all over Boston’s win over Vegas on Thursday, opening a salvo of three goals in 54 seconds with a power-play tally at 9:12 in the first period.

Along with logging a team-leading 27:01 of ice time, he also made key plays down the other end of the ice — blocking a pair of shots from Jack Eichel while protecting a one-goal lead in the closing minutes of the third period.

Charlie McAvoy opens the scoring for Boston… pic.twitter.com/lSY2YdYubD
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 23, 2026

“I’ll be sore,” McAvoy said of getting in front of Eichel’s blistering shots. “We say it in here, like, it was my turn. Sometimes it’s your turn. It was my turn. So you got to block that shot. And we got to see this thing through.

“Two points is huge for us and what this team is trying to accomplish. So I wasn’t just that. A lot of guys stepped up and made big plays tonight, but you know, in the moment, it was just my turn.”

Charlie McAvoy on his shot block: "It was my turn." pic.twitter.com/aQVMpYQBbn
— NESN (@NESN) January 23, 2026

McAvoy’s heavy workload and willingness to do the dirty work has been well-established, as is his ability to contribute offensively at 5-on-5 play.

Boston has outscored opponents, 10-5, during the 122 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time that a D pairing of McAvoy and Jonathan Aspirot has been on the ice this season.

But McAvoy has also made strides this season as the QB of Boston’s power play — an area of his game that had occasionally been rife with inconsistency.

During a 2024-25 season where Boston’s power play ranked 29th in the NHL (15.2 percent), a Bruins man advantage featuring McAvoy and David Pastrnak generated 3.97 goals per 60 minutes.

This year, that scoring rate has surged to 12.16 goals per 60 minutes when Pastrnak and McAvoy are both out on the ice on the power play — with McAvoy’s quicker passing and willingness to shoot from the high slot making Boston’s man advantage much more unpredictable and lethal.

Boston’s power play currently ranks fifth in the NHL at 25.5 percent, and has cashed in on 33.3 percent of its bids (10-for-30) over these last 11 games.

The Bruins — now three points clear of teams below them as the final wild-card club in the Eastern Conference — have six games to go before the Olympic break.

If McAvoy keeps playing at this level, the Bruins should have a prime opportunity to further cement their standing as a viable playoff club before an extended layoff.

“He’s playing outstanding,” Sturm said of McAvoy’s play last week. “Even off the ice. I feel like he growing as a leader, too. Does a lot of the right things, takes care of himself too.

“I think he’s in a good spot right now. I mean, you guys saw him more than I did in the past. … I was always a big fan of him, but as of right now, he’s definitely playing the best hockey I’ve seen from him.”