The Boston Bruins’ 3-2 win over the rival Canadiens in Montreal on Saturday night came at a price.
Defenseman Charlie McAvoy took a Noah Dobson one-timer to the face in the second period at the Bell Centre and immediately dropped to the ice as blood spurted from his mouth.
While McAvoy didn’t return to the game, he was able to fly back to Boston with the team Saturday night, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. On Monday, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm shared the latest on McAvoy while confirming the star defenseman won’t play Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes at TD Garden.
“He’s with the doctors right now,” Sturm told reporters Monday morning. “There’s no timeline. Obviously he’s gonna be out tonight. We’ll see how it goes today with all his appointments.”
Sturm added that surgery is a possibility for McAvoy, depending on the results of Monday’s appointments.
“I’m not in charge, so we’ll have to wait and see,” Sturm added.
McAvoy’s injury comes at an unfortunate time for the Bruins, who have gone 8-1 in their last nine games to improve to 12-8-0 on the season. The 27-year-old had played a key role in Boston’s hot streak, tallying eight points over a six-game span from Oct. 28 to Nov. 11 (all Bruins wins).
Henri Jokiharju replaced McAvoy on Boston’s top defensive pairing alongside Nikita Zadorov at Monday’s morning skate, and the Finnish defenseman could see an uptick in playing time if McAvoy is out for a significant amount of time.
The Bruins also placed forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt on injured reserve Monday while sending defenseman Jordan Harris to long-term injured reserve.