Back on Feb. 4, after a 3-0 Bruins win over Minnesota, Charlie McAvoy couldn’t help but smile as he told reporters, “Life is awesome right now.”
It was. McAvoy was back from an upper-body injury that had cost him seven games. He had scored in back-to-back games, both wins. He had just been named an alternate captain for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off. And most importantly, he was a new dad.
A lot has changed on the hockey side since then. McAvoy played great in the first two games of the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal – games that he called “the most fun I’ve ever had in hockey” this week – but also suffered a shoulder injury in the first game that led to a serious infection a few days later. By the time the tournament shifted to Boston, McAvoy had bigger things to worry about than a rematch with Canada.
“It wasn’t good. It was bad,” McAvoy said of the infection this week. “It was when I got home that things sort of hit the fan on Monday, and that landed me in the hospital. And things moved pretty fast after that, and the infection was moving pretty fast after that, and it got very serious, very quick. Another thing that I’m just trying to leave in the past, really. It was scary. It was scary on me. It was scary on my family mostly. I could not be more grateful for all the people at MGH and all the people who took such amazing care of me in a time where I really needed it. Those people, they’re the heroes of this story.”
McAvoy hasn’t played since. He was finally able to join his teammates on the ice, in a red no-contact jersey, for Tuesday’s practice in Anaheim. He didn’t play in Wednesday’s 6-2 loss to Anaheim and won’t play Saturday night in Detroit. If or when he returns to game action remains to be seen, with now just nine games remaining in the season.
Whether this stretch run would have played out any differently for the Bruins if McAvoy were playing is unknown. What is known is that his injury, combined with injuries to Hampus Lindholm and Brad Marchand and the team losing six of seven out of the 4 Nations break, made general manager Don Sweeney’s decision to sell a pretty easy one.
McAvoy understands that business side of the NHL, but it didn’t make that week any easier to take as he saw Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau all traded away.
“It was hard. It was really hard,” McAvoy said. “There’s another aspect to this game that has nothing to do with on the ice, and that’s the friendships of it and the relationships. The reality of it is I’ve been here a while now and I’ve seen a lot of my friends no longer here. I understand that there’s a business part of it. I do. I get it. But it doesn’t make it easier to see a lot of your best buddies now being in other spots. Like I said, I understand the business of it, and it’s a problem that everybody goes through, not just me. But it stings. It does.”
It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that McAvoy, an alternate captain, wasn’t with the team on deadline day. They were in Florida, while he was back in Boston continuing his rehab. He was able to be around the team a little more when they got back to Boston, but still wasn’t on the ice with them until this week.
At a time when management has clearly made the decision to turn the team over to McAvoy and fellow alternate captain David Pastrnak, McAvoy’s ability to actually step up and lead has been limited. Since the deadline, Pastrnak has been the only player wearing an ‘A’ on his jersey.
“To be honest, I haven’t crossed paths with anybody since I’ve been hurt,” McAvoy said. “These guys are in the thick of it, they’re in the battle, and I’m just trying to get myself healthy. So, it’s tough to not be in the fight. It’s tough to lead from the sidelines when you’re not within the group and you’re not there.”
“I wish a lot of things would have been different coming down the stretch here. I really do,” McAvoy added. “It hasn’t been the easiest, but this sort of feels like a bit of an opening to put a close to that and get back out here. I’m with the guys now and that’s nice. Sort of put the past in the past, and we’ll pick up right here.”
Part of that picking up process will be McAvoy and Pastrnak figuring out what they want this team to look like under their leadership, and how they get it there. McAvoy called it their “most important objective.”
“Moving forward, it’s probably our most important objective, is how we’re going to get it back and what we’re going to do, and how are we going to leave it better than the way we found it,” he said. “We’ve certainly got some work to do on that front, but it’s a challenge that you’re so fortunate to have, because I know the both of us know what it means to be a Boston Bruin, and we know what it looks like and what it feels like to be a part of the teams that are winning teams, the special teams. It’s right there. We’ve just got to get it back.”
For the organization as a whole, what the front office does next is probably more important than what McAvoy and Pastrnak do. But in the room and on the ice, in terms of culture and compete and leadership – well, that’s on those two now.
McAvoy’s return is too late to help the Bruins on the ice this season. Wednesday’s loss was Boston’s seventh straight, which is tied for the fourth-longest losing streak in franchise history. But that process of trying to pick up the pieces and build something for the future is something McAvoy can finally start to be a part of.
It needs to start now, because as Pastrnak bluntly stated after Wednesday’s loss, “We have to be better than that and start building something here, because right now we have nothing.”