The Boston Bruins have lost their top defenseman.
On Saturday night, Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was injured when he was struck in the face by a puck during the game’s second period. The shot came off the stick of Montreal Canadiens defenseman Noah Dobson who was at the blue line when he fired off a one timer after a pass along the blue line, although the puck did appear to deflect on the way.
It is unclear if it went off of teammate Mark Kastelic or perhaps another stick, but the end result was the puck slamming hard into McAvoy’s exposed face. Unfortunately for the Bruins and for McAvoy, the puck seemed to sneak under the visor with nothing left to protect McAvoy from the impact.
McAvoy appeared to be in rough shape after being struck by the puck and remained on the ice for some time before eventually leaving under his own power and heading straight to the Bruins locker room.
McAvoy is a massive part of what the Bruins do on defense and losing him for any length of time would be a huge blow to the team. McAvoy already has 14 points on the season, all assists, despite appearing in just 18 games and he will be an impossible player for the Bruins to replace if he does indeed miss time, especially with McAvoy averaging over 24 minutes a night of ice time thus far this season.
