Boston Bruins: Charlie McAvoy out at least 4 weeks with MCL injury
By Sam Minton
The Boston Bruins lost Charlie McAvoy early in the 1st period on Saturday night. The defenseman would not return to the game and he won’t be returning to the ice anytime soon.
The Boston Bruins are going to be without one of their top players for a while. No not Patrice Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy will be out at least 4 weeks with a sprained MCL.
The injury occurred less than a minute into the game. McAvoy went down awkwardly and no one knew what happened. Some said it was the cause of stick work by Brendan Gallagher. It was later revealed that it may have been from colliding with the boards.
Here's McAvoy's knee hitting against the boards, which Felger opened the show talking about. pic.twitter.com/piy80x2srk
— James Stewart ☝️ (@IAmJamesStewart) March 5, 2018
Bruce Cassidy spoke about McAvoy’s injury earlier today.
Bruce Cassidy on McAvoy’s injury:
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 6, 2018
“Could have been worse obviously....We’ll be without Charlie for a little bit, we have lots of depth and he will be back...Hopefully he heals quick and keeps his conditioning up.”
What will the lineup look like?
Well, thank God Don Sweeney made the moves he did at the deadline. With Nick Holden being brought in, the Bruins don’t need to call up a player from the AHL. Holden will slide up next to Torey Krug which could make for a very offensive focused d-pairing.
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Brandon Carlo will get a great opportunity to play with Zdeno Chara in the top defensive pairing. Carlo has been struggling as of late. In Carlo’s last 10 games he had one assist and a rating of -5. Quite simply if a goal is being scored on the Bruins there is a good chance that Carlo is on the ice.
Carlo can take advantage of playing with his former d-partner. Since Chara is such a great defenseman Carlo can take some risks in the offensive zone. Hopefully, this will jumpstart a streak of good play by Carlo.
Rask Update:
Cassidy also gave an update on Tuukka Rask’s health Tuesday morning.
Cassidy on Tuukka Rask:
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 6, 2018
“Tuukka is out skating today. He’s feeling better…We’ll make a decision after the skate, talk to Tuukka and if he feels if he had to go in and he could do it, he would back up. Otherwise we would look at a goaltender from Providence.”
It looks like we may be seeing Anton Khudobin a lot more with Rask nursing this injury.
McAvoy is a big loss for the Bruins and he will be missed. He has been having a great rookie year, but the main concern for the B’s is getting McAvoy healthy for the playoffs. It’s going to be hard for the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup without one of their top defensemen.
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So get well Charlie. If the Bruins want to have any chance of bringing the cup to Boston you need to be on the ice.