Charlie McAvoy was in a good place after returning from a broken jaw and needing to wear the fishbowl.
Then he was hit with an elbow to the face from Sandis Vilmanis in the Bruins’ final game before the Olympic break against the Florida Panthers.
“I’m in pain. I’m having trouble chewing,” McAvoy wrote in his Olympic diary for The Athletic. “My face is swollen again. Back to square one, it feels like.”
Vilmanis only received a minor and there was no supplemental discipline. McAvoy was helped off the ice but later returned to the game.
McAvoy, in his own way, called out the Department of Player Safety with a post on X that included the video of the hit as well as how swollen his face was.
“I know a lot of attention has been given to my tweet of the play. I didn’t say anything (about him not getting suspended). I feel like a lot of people have a strong opinion on it that I share,” McAvoy wrote. “So it is what it is. These things are not up to me, unfortunately. And we just have to have trust in the system.”
McAvoy and the United States men’s hockey team will open their Olympic tournament Feb. 12 playing Latvia, who Vilmanis represents. The Bruins defenseman said he won’t be looking for any revenge during the game.
“Whatever happened in the NHL can stay in the NHL, and we’ll handle that whenever we get there,” McAvoy said. “But this is about USA versus Latvia and us getting off to a really good start.”