BOSTON — For Charlie McAvoy, the timing of his injury had to be devastating.
The Bruins defenseman was playing the best hockey of his season and was a key part of Team USA, which is about to play for the championship of the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off. But his shoulder injury and subsequent infection forced him into the hospital, ending his tournament.
But while McAvoy is expected to make a full recovery, the long-term impact could be significant for the Bruins. The impact of his injury could change the direction of the Boston franchise going forward. If McAvoy isn’t coming back soon, that should solidify Boston’s decision to be sellers at the rapidly approaching March 7 deadline.
They should explore what they can get for players they might not bring back while creating some additional cap space for the offseason, when they’ll try to fix some of this year’s roster mistakes.
It’s unclear when McAvoy will play again. The Bruins have become more guarded with their public injury rehab timetables this year, but they described the ailment as “a significant injury to his AC joint.”
That certainly sounds bad, and definitely not like something that only requires a few days off.
There’s never an opportune time to lose a defenseman who is good enough to make the Team USA roster, but it’s especially bad for the Bruins right now.
When they return to action on Saturday against the Ducks at TD Garden, the Bruins will have just seven games over two weeks until the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline. But just as importantly they only have 25 games left in the season with ground to make up just to get into the playoffs.
They’re only a point out of the last wild card, but everyone they’re competing with has games in hand. On top of that, they’re a lousy road team (9-15-3) with 14 of their final 25 games on the road.
It’s possible Boston general manager Don Sweeney had already decided making the playoffs is a long shot and that his team will be in seller mode. If that’s true, the McAvoy injury just makes the optics of that easier.
But Bruins ownership has historically put a high priority on making the postseason. They’re certainly not likely to be a team that pulls the plug any earlier than they have to. More likely, the directive to Sweeney would have been to add conservatively or at least try to get into the playoffs with the current team intact.
Losing McAvoy changes that equation. The Bruins would be fighting an uphill battle to make the playoffs even with McAvoy at full strength. If they’re missing him for any length of time, the task becomes even more unrealistic.
To have a chance to earn a spot in the postseason field, the Bruins have to be considerably better than they have been to this point in the season. That was a tough ask at full strength. But one of the reasons to be optimistic was that Hampus Lindholm’s expected return might give the defense —and with it the Bruins — a big lift.
Lindholm’s return seems less immediate than it did before the 4 Nations break. He didn’t practice with the team on Wednesday and Thursday, but McAvoy’s absence could cancel out any boost from Lindholm’s return whenever it happens. The Bruins are still going to require too many minutes from Jordan Oesterle, Parker Wotherspoon and Mike Callahan to really make a push.
If this was the incentive they need to sell, even if they do so cautiously, it could be a bad development producing a good result, a blessing in disguise for a team that could use a course correction.
If the Bruins weren’t going to make the playoffs anyway, this could spur them into moves that’ll be beneficial in the long term.
In other words, Charlie McAvoy’s injury might make Sweeney more willing to test the market on Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie, Brandon Carlo, Charlie Coyle or Justin Brazeau and might make him at least more willing to listen to anyone asking about Brad Marchand.
That’s a long way from what they expected heading into the year.
