The Bruins skated off the TD Garden ice on Saturday with a 5-2 win over the Devils. But it was looking like a pyrrhic victory, considering the optics that played out just a few minutes earlier with Boston’s top defenseman.
In the closing minutes of the third period, Charlie McAvoy went down with what looked to be a serious injury after colliding into goalie Linus Ullmark while trying to break up a Devils’ rush opportunity.
McAvoy remained on the ice for some time, favoring his leg, before slowly making his way down the tunnel with the help of the team’s medical staff. As severe as the injury initially seemed, Jim Montgomery had some good news to offer about McAvoy’s status just a few minutes later.
“Yeah, he’s fine,” Montgomery said of McAvoy. “I think he just had a bit of a scare with a burner or stinger of some sort. I don’t know what it was, but he’s walking around. He’s happy right now. So we’re good.”
Any extended absence for McAvoy would have been devastating for the Bruins, given the 26-year-old blueliner’s ability to log heavy minutes and run the team’s top power-play unit.
Boston is already missing another starting defenseman in Derek Forbort, who remains on long-term injured reserve due to a nagging lower-body injury.
The Bruins do have some depth on the blue line in case of additional injuries. Kevin Shattenkirk (two goals) and Matt Grzelcyk (one assist) fared well on Boston’s third D pair on Saturday, while Parker Wotherspoon is the team’s current reserve defenseman. Ian Mitchell, currently in Providence, stands as another option.
But with Boston’s schedule set to ramp up now that the holiday break has wrapped, the Bruins could ill afford to put McAvoy on the shelf for a significant stretch of time.
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