Charlie McAvoy will not win the Norris Trophy this year.<\/p>\n
In fact, with point-producers like Cale Makar, Zach Werenski and Quinn Hughes as his peers, it is conceivable he never wins one. The fact that Zdeno Chara \u2014 a first-ballot Hall of Famer and as good a shutdown defenseman as there ever was \u2014 won only one Norris tells you all you need to know about how much offensive production matters in that voting.<\/p>\n
But the truth of the matter is that in the Bruins\u2019 last 12 games, in which they\u2019ve gone 9-2-1 and revived their playoff hopes, Charlie McAvoy has been playing like a true No. 1 defenseman, playing a sound game in his own zone, moving the puck out quickly and then chipping in at the other end of the ice.<\/p>\n
In Thursday\u2019s white-knuckle win over the Vegas Golden Knights in which he played a team-high 27:01, McAvoy kicked off the scoring with a one-timer slapper on the power play, displaying a quicker trigger finger than he\u2019s shown in the past. Then, with 27 seconds left in the game, he came up with a huge block of a Jack Eichel shot, thwarting the Knights\u2019 last best chance to even the game.<\/p>\n
One could argue that he\u2019s playing the best hockey of his career right now. After the B\u2019s white-knuckle win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, coach Marco Sturm didn\u2019t try to make that argument. He\u2019s only had been watching him up close for less than a season.<\/p>\n
But Sturm is liking what he\u2019s seeing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been outstanding as of late, for a while now. He\u2019s like a horse out there. It\u2019s almost like you want him playing for 60 minutes because he does everything right right now,\u201d said Sturm after the win. \u201cBlocking a shot is part of his game, too. I\u2019m just very happy the way he\u2019s playing right now, especially in those crucial moments of the game when we need to stay calm and be at the right spot. And he\u2019s been there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
After McAvoy suffered a broken jaw on Nov. 15 in Montreal from a Noah Dobson slapper, one couldn\u2019t help but think this might be another cursed season for the D-man. His season was ended in the 4 Nations tournament last year when he suffered shoulder injury and subsequent infection.<\/p>\n
He missed almost a month with the broken jaw. But in a hopeful joke, he said that he\u2019s decided that he\u2019s leaving all the bad stuff behind in 2025. The new year has been much better for him.<\/p>\n
Since returning, he\u2019s gotten used to playing with playing with the bubble. He\u2019s also gotten over some brief gun shyness.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight when I came back when I put the bubble on, early on I was pretty hesitant when stuff was coming at me,\u201d said McAvoy. \u201cYou\u2019re kind of in your head a little bit. But it didn\u2019t last long. I just honestly forgot about it and I just started playing normally and didn\u2019t think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took the Eichel shot in a vulnerable spot, off the right instep, and it appeared at first that he might have been injured on the play. But he was able to shake it off and finish the game. McAvoy said he was fine after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my turn. Sometimes it\u2019s your turn and it was my turn,\u201d said McAvoy. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to block that shot and we\u2019ve got to see this thing through. Two points are huge for us and what this team is trying to accomplish. And it wasn\u2019t just that. A lot of guys stepped up and made big plays tonight. But in the moment, it was my turn to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
McAvoy has been stepping up in a lot of ways lately.<\/p>\n
Rivalry game<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s will try to start a new win streak on Saturday but it won\u2019t be easy. The archrival Montreal Canadiens will be in town (7 p.m.). The Habs beat the B\u2019s at the Garden on Dec. 23, 6-2, breaking open what had been a tight game with four goals in the third period.<\/p>\n
The teams have split the two games, with the B\u2019s winning that game in Montreal in which McAvoy took the slapper.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s could draw within a point of the third-place Habs with a regulation win, though the very real Buffalo Sabres are sandwiched in between the B\u2019s and Habs.<\/p>\n
While the league is doing it\u2019s best to water down any rivalries, the players are doing their equal best to keep the flame burning. Both games have started with fights off the opening draw, so you might want to be in your seats for puck drop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie McAvoy will not win the Norris Trophy this year. In fact, with point-producers like Cale Makar, Zach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,530,2154,5,40,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-424221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-bostonbruins","11":"tag-bruins","12":"tag-charlie-mcavoy","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115946343905694417","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}