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With wins in three of the four games he missed, the Bruins more than found a way to survive with Charlie McAvoy (heart procedure) on the shelf. That being said, it didn’t take much in any of those four games to realize just how badly he was missed.
Despise a McAvoy-less win against the Devils, McAvoy’s presence was undoubtedly missed by Zdeno Chara in a rare off-night for the B’s 6-foot-9 captain. And when the Bruins saw their 18-game point come to an end against the Ducks earlier this week, it was painfully apparent that the Bruins missed McAvoy’s strong first pass and power-play poise in what finished as an 0-for-4 night on the power play. They also lost Kevan Miller (upper-body) in the final of those four games, a 3-1 win on Thursday.
So, needless to say, the Bruins are excited to get their 20-year-old No. 2 d-man back for tonight’s seemingly important head-to-head with the Maple Leafs.
Sentiments shared by McAvoy himself.
“Excited, excited” a grinning McAvoy said when asked about his feelings returning to to action. “Doesn’t feel like I was gone too long. Somewhat of a quick two weeks.
“Always hard when you’re on that little couch rest there, and when you’re sitting around, it does tend to feels longer than it is,” he continued. “But in the grand scheme of things, to be ready to go within two weeks of the procedure was our goal, and something we thought was attainable. But everything was going to have to line up, and it did.”
But for somebody that’s played as much hockey as McAvoy has since the start of last season (he played for Boston University, Team USA in the World Juniors, the P-Bruins, the Big B’s, and then another Team USA run for the World Championships in 2016-17), and as somebody that’s already logged an insane amount of NHL minutes this season, the two-week breather was almost welcomed.
“At this point, 40-something games in, a week and a half to relax and rest, it's pretty beneficial as far as the muscles and bumps and bruises, even the mindset to take a week away from the rink,” McAvoy, who admitted he’ll probably keep his first few shifts short to get his feet back under him, said following the morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena on Saturday.
“I'm going to do the best I can to help this team keep going, keep trending in the right direction,” the smiling No. 73 added. “They were playing really well without me. Gotta come back and make sure I'm a positive part of the lineup.”
Forward Austin Czarnik was an emergency recall Saturday morning, and will skate on the right side of a fourth line with Frank Vatrano and Sean Kuraly tonight. The 5-foot-9 Czarnik has recorded nine goals and 32 points in 33 AHL games since his last demotion back to the minors, and has used his extra time in the AHL to try and improve on his defensive game, especially as a winger.
“Be good defensively and work on my stuff; That’s what they wanted me to focus on,” Czarnik said. “I think when you focus on defense, it turns into offense, and being in the right spots.”
Tuukka Rask gets the nod in net for the Bruins.
Loose pucks: Kevan Miller (upper-body) and Noel Acciari (lower-body) remain out of action for the Bruins… Tonight will be Zdeno Chara’s 1,400th NHL game… Tonight will be the fourth game of leading scorer Brad Marchand’s five-game suspension… The Bruins come into this game having lost six straight games to the Maple Leafs…
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on WEEI’s Zero Pucks Given podcast with Dale Arnold, and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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