Not only did Team USA lose defenseman Charlie McAvoy for Thursday's 4 Nations Face-Off championship game against Canada, but the Boston Bruins could now be without one of their most important players for an extended period of time. And they are apparently not happy with how the whole situation ended up where it did.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman detailed the Bruins' frustration with USA Hockey Wednesday evening.
"I think the people who are the angriest is the team, the Bruins," Friedman said. "If you read their statement today, they make it very clear that they are unhappy with how this all went down, that they don't feel that their player was given the proper treatment. It seems now that McAvoy was originally injured in the opener against Finland. There's a play where Joel Armia takes him hard into the post.
"And it sounds like -- I don't know if he got a shot or something. I don't know exactly what happened, but he played Saturday, it looks like, with much more severe an injury than he was initially led to believe, and everybody was initially led to believe, which makes his performance all that more impressive. So, from what I understand, on Monday he was in a bit more pain, and was admitted to the hospital, and they realized the injury was more severe than believed or initially diagnosed. And number two, there was an infection there that had to be operated on and removed. So, I don't know if he was given a needle or shot or something like that, and it got infected, but it was something along these lines.
"I remember yesterday when it was the Bruins and not Team USA that announced that McAvoy was out, there were people saying, 'How come the Bruins, whose GM is the GM of Team Canada, are announcing that Charlie McAvoy wouldn't play?' And then it became pretty clear that it's because the Bruins were extremely unhappy with the way this had been handled, and that they felt that in this particular case, McAvoy didn't get the proper care."
The statements referenced by Friedman were the ones the Bruins released on back-to-back days Tuesday and Wednesday. As he points out, it was the Bruins on Tuesday who announced that McAvoy would not play Thursday, not USA Hockey. That did come across as odd given that most other injury updates throughout this tournament had come from the national teams.
The one released Wednesday came from head Bruins physician Dr. Peter Asnis, and provided more details on what McAvoy was dealing with. It also called McAvoy's initial shoulder injury "significant," a clear shot at Team USA's initial diagnosis, which had determined that the injury was not serious enough to keep McAvoy out of Saturday's game against Canada.
"Charlie McAvoy sustained an injury to his right shoulder acromioclavicular joint in Team USA’s 4 Nations Face-Off game against Finland on February 13," that statement read. "He underwent treatment, which was administered by Team USA’s medical staff. Upon returning to Boston, he developed increasing pain, for which he was evaluated by the Boston Bruins’ medical staff. After undergoing x-rays, MRIs, and bloodwork, he was diagnosed as having an infection in his right shoulder, as well as a significant injury to his AC joint. He underwent an irrigation and debridement procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital on February 18. He remains in the hospital, where he is being treated with IV antibiotics, and his condition is improving."
Friedman also noted that Team USA's doctors are the Minnesota Wild's doctors, brought along by Wild and USA general manager Bill Guerin. This would be the second instance in a calendar year of the Bruins assessing a player's medical condition differently than the Wild. When the Bruins acquired Pat Maroon from the Wild last season, Maroon had started skating in Minnesota as he rehabbed a back injury. But when he arrived in Boston, the Bruins' staff determined that he should not have been back on the ice yet and held him off for another several weeks.
Friedman said he has heard that there could be a push from NHL teams to use independent doctors in a tournament like this rather than any one team's doctors, with this incident serving as a springboard for those conversations.
That seems like a worthwhile fix moving forward, but it obviously does nothing to help the Bruins now.
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