“It was pretty scary. It was the first time I had ever been hit in the face with a puck before,” McAvoy said. “It was pretty traumatic during it. I knew right away that I was in some trouble.”
McAvoy was helped down the tunnel, and then the game had to go on. It was not an easy night for anyone in the Black & Gold, but they pulled out a 3-2 win for their teammate. McAvoy gave the Bruins a purpose.
“You don’t think about the player Charlie McAvoy, you think about him as a person,” Sturm said. “You feel for the person right away because he doesn’t deserve that. Unfortunately, that is part of the game, part of the business. Sometimes you get unlucky. You just don’t want that to happen to anyone. I think that’s why the whole bench was pretty shocked when it happened.”
McAvoy got facial surgery soon after, starting a grueling rehabilitation process. It had been less than a year since his 2024-25 campaign came to an abrupt end due to an upper-body injury. And now, more adversity.
“I had a lot of the ‘Why me?’” McAvoy said. “Again, you feel like you’re back here. Again, you’re coming out of a surgery and you always feel like you almost have to start over. Fortunate that the timetable on this one wasn’t very long.”
McAvoy lost 20 pounds in the first week and a half due to the strict all-liquid diet, he said. Then it was onto soups and lots of ice cream to try to build back. McAvoy experimented with blending his meals – but that is not how chicken is supposed to be eaten, he said.
“It might be the most frustrating injury I think I’ve had. You don’t really ever think about eating, drinking, stuff like that – you take it for granted, I guess,” McAvoy said. “Through the injuries in the mouth, the intubation, the surgery – I had a lot of canker sores and stuff. It was just a lot of discomfort that took seven to 10 days after the surgery to get over that hump.”
The outward surprise was accordingly warranted when McAvoy surfaced on the ice in a red non-contact jersey for practice with the Bruins just over two weeks after the initial injury. It was not unexpected for Sturm, though.
“I know hockey guys are tough, and he’s a tough guy, too,” Sturm said. “Came back to business like he always does. And look at him right now – I don’t see any difference in his game, the way he plays and works and hits, even after his broken jaw.”