Boston Bruins
“Honestly, I wish the hits would stop. It’s tiring. Honestly, my mouth couldn’t feel worse.”
Charlie McAvoy scored the winning goal in overtime on Tuesday against the Kings. AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Charlie McAvoy didn’t have time to answer two questions from the media after the Bruins’ 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
Despite being Boston’s overtime hero on Tuesday, the Bruins defenseman had more pressing matters to attend to than dwelling on his team’s 13th straight win at TD Garden.
“I have to go get more dental checkups,” McAvoy said, after Boston’s latest victory.
He added after the match: “I wish the hits would stop, honestly. It’s tiring. Honestly, I couldn’t feel worse in my mouth.” “But I’ll get some work done. We have a really good dentist here and he’s great. I’m really happy we got two points tonight.”
The 2025-26 season saw McAvoy reach new heights at the back of the net. But at a grueling physical cost.
The 28-year-old Blueliner is playing some of the best hockey of his career with Boston — holding a rookie roster into a playoff spot with his seventh tally of the season Tuesday night at Causeway Street.
He was a key component of the USA team that won Olympic gold for the first time in 46 years last month.
McAvoy has a lot to smile about this season. If only it were that easy.
“It doesn’t get any prettier, that’s for sure,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said after Tuesday’s win.
After a miserable 2024-25 season that included a season-ending shoulder injury and an infection that required a hospital stay, things haven’t gotten any easier for Boston’s reigning MVP this year.
His hopes for an injury-free campaign were dashed when he took a shot directly to the mouth in a win over the Canadiens on Nov. 15 — breaking his jaw, knocking out several teeth and forcing doctors to insert a metal plate into the cracked joint.
He missed less than a month while on the mend, despite losing 20 pounds in less than two weeks while on a liquid-only diet.
Before leaving for Italy to play in Milano Cortina for Team USA, he avoided another catastrophic injury after taking a cheap shot from Florida’s Sandis Vilmanis on February 4.
The hits have continued to come since he ditched the face shield he wore from December through February.
After taking another deflected puck to the face last week against the Nashville Predators, he was pinned (face-first) into the glass by Kings forward Samuel Helenius during the second period of Tuesday’s game — dislodging more teeth.
McAvoy missed the rest of the second period to assess the damage, but returned for both the third period and the short overtime period against Los Angeles.
Fittingly, it was McAvoy who picked up two points for his team – receiving a pass from David Pastrnak and beating Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper with a stunning backhander to seal the 2-1 victory.
“I thought he wasn’t going to come back,” Sturm said of McAvoy. “For some reason, he’s had a hard time this year. … Like this kid just scored the game-winner — he’s a competitor, and he knew he probably wasn’t at his best, but he played a very good third period and scored a beautiful goal in overtime.”
Ideally, McAvoy’s success this season won’t need to give way to hours of misery spent getting repairs in the dentist’s chair.
But as the Bruins – now just one point behind Detroit for first place in the East – try to cement their playoff position, McAvoy’s toughness has resonated with his head coach.
“These are the guys you need in the locker room,” Sturm noted.
“The man next to him, he will look at him [and ask] “Well, is he going to fight or not?” If you sit across from him, if you’re a young man, to see that, you [say] “I don’t want to be the guy who quits,” Boston’s bench boss added.
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