Feb. 18th: According to a statement from the Bruins, McAvoy has been ruled out of the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game on Thursday. Boston shared he’s undergoing testing at Massachusetts General Hospital for an upper-body injury and the team will pass along additional information as it becomes available.
Feb. 17th: It’s already been confirmed through multiple reports this morning that Team USA would be resting defenseman Charlie McAvoy for tonight’s matchup against Team Sweden. Unfortunately, there appears to be another layer of context for McAvoy’s absence as Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub reports McAvoy is out with an upper-body injury and is questionable to play in Thursday’s championship game.
McAvoy would be a major missing piece for the Americans should he not be available for Thursday’s re-match against Team Canada. Although he went scoreless in the first North American rivalry contest, the Boston Bruins’ blue-liner landed five hits in 19:27 of ice time including a momentum-altering body check against Connor McDavid.
Team USA has a more than capable in-house replacement in Ottawa Senators’ defenseman Jake Sanderson but they’ll have a slight abundance of left-handed shots on the blue line. Sanderson, nor any other member of the United States defensive core, is as physical as McAvoy, but he can hold his own on the offensive side of the puck.
Aside from his immediate availability for the United States to close out the 4 Nations Face-Off, there’s no telling if McAvoy’s injury will affect his availability with the Bruins. Anderson didn’t offer a timeline for McAvoy’s recovery but it could be somewhat serious if he’ll miss an entire week of hockey.
Boston will emerge from the 4 Nations Face-Off break exactly one point back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with two additional games played compared to the Detroit Red Wings. Time is abundant for the Bruins to recapture a playoff spot but their probability will shrink without their top defenseman. Again, there’s no confirmation McAvoy will miss any time with the Bruins although it’ll be a situation to monitor.
Dropping like flies at the four nations.
The positive is Charlie McAvoy will have some time to rest & heal up between now and Thursday. So hopefully he’ll be good to go, come Thursday for the 4 Nations Championship game.
To remark on the update, McAvoy officially being out of the 4 Nations Championship game is a big loss for Team USA.
After tonights game, I’m thinking Bill Guerin has a few plane tickets lined up for some replacement players. Hopefully it won’t be necessary.
Mm, it’s worse than that. Local media reports McAvoy’s been checked into Mass General.
“Take a salt tablet Charlie!” -‘Sour’ Coach Sowers from King of The Hill
McAvoy was the guy the USA coaching staff wanted out against McDavid, so this is a big loss. Sanderson played well last night though, so nice to have a replacement like that.