Perhaps the only thing Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy has hated more than missing games to a broken jaw has been the diet that the injury has put him on.

“The diet, that’s the toughest part,” McAvoy, who suffered a linear fracture, displacement, and lost several bottom teeth in the incident, admitted following a skate last Friday. “Just trying to get what you need without being able to eat solid foods [is tough]. I lost a lot of weight, but [I’m] working my way back now. Soups are good. Soups have been my go-to. Early on, a lot of ice cream and milkshakes. It’s tough. I tried to give it a go, if you’re blending up solid food, it’s not enjoyable.

“I tried [blending] chicken and vegetable. And that was just a non-starter. It’s terrible. So, soups have really been my go-to and smoothies to try and get protein. Because food blended up is not meant to be eaten that way.” 

The liquid diet, as well as the time away from the rink, has led to what’s been a massive weight loss for McAvoy. He says it’s been about a 20-pound drop. By NHL in-season measurements, that’s an absolutely gigantic weight drop to go through. And it’s an equally important part of McAvoy’s recovery along with the injury itself.

“We have a good staff here who’s going to try to do their best on their behalf to get [McAvoy] everything he needs,” Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said when asked about McAvoy’s weight loss. “All the fluids and carbs, whatever, to get him back. I can tell on the ice, he definitely looks like a skinny guy out there. Maybe it’s because of his mask. But that’s why we have to be patient with him, too.”

Again, this is a sneaky-big part of the recovery from this kind of injury.

When Penguins captain Sidney Crosby suffered a broken jaw on a similar-looking incident back in 2013, he was on a liquid diet that left him sick of milkshakes and dying for a real meal. The Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard went through something during his rookie season, and admitted that he loaded up on as many smoothies, shakes, and supplements as he could in an effort to not drop weight.

But it’s downright impossible without real food, as McAvoy’s attempts to blend a real meal into a disgusting Frankenfrappe of sorts can confirm.

It’s also the kind of weight loss that can derail a season. In 2021, Trent Frederic dealt with a non-COVID illness that took him out of action down the stretch and for all of the postseason. Frederic acknowledged the weight loss from the illness as something that really limited him. And in 2024, James van Riemsdyk dealt with some sort of virus that led to him losing 15 pounds from his playing weight. He was not the same player upon his return, and had a quiet end to his year.

It’s just so hard for players to gain weight in-season. Let alone when it’s trying to work their way back from an injury that makes it impossible to gain weight.

“I gotta get [strength] back. That’s definitely tough with the lost weight, you feel weak and energy is tough to come by. It’s a shock to your body,” McAvoy, who has been skating in a non-contact jersey, said. “Trying to get it back now, while getting out there [on the ice] and doing more than I’ve done in a while, and trying to have energy, that’s where we’re trying to play catch-up now.” 

McAvoy’s current timeline to begin eating solid foods again was six weeks after the surgery, which was back on Nov. 20. Best case scenario, he’s eating by New Year’s Day. The Bruins refuse to put a timeline on his return, but you’d have to imagine it’d be sometime after his ability to eat a regular diet resumes.

“We do not want to rush him to come back,” Sturm acknowledged. “We just want to make sure he’s 100 percent mental, physically. And his weight has to at the right spot. Otherwise it will not be fair to him.”