BOSTON — With just under 2 minutes left and the Bruins clinging to a one-goal Game 5 lead against a Panthers team with the goalie pulled, Charlie McAvoy accelerated around the net.
With Florida forechecking, the puck skidded into the left-wing corner. McAvoy outraced Matthew Tkachuk and cleared it out of the zone.
Florida regrouped and attacked again. From the right wall, Aleksander Barkhov sent a pass toward Tkachuk, who appeared to be open in the slot, but McAvoy read the play. He took a hard stride and then dove, putting his already black-eyed face in harm’s way again. The Bruins defenseman just barely got his stick on the puck and redirected it out of the zone again with 1:25 left.
McAvoy was still on the ice when his partner Hampus Lindholm lost his stick. So the Bruins’ defenseman switched sides to battle for the loose puck along the boards. While McAvoy pinned Carter Verhaeghe against the wall with his body, Brandon Montour charged in from the point after the puck, sitting a few feet away.
McAvoy dove again, shuffleboarding the puck just out of the zone one more time with 49 seconds left.
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As big moments go, nothing was going to eclipse McAvoy’s game-winning goal in the Bruins’ season-extending 2-1 victory. But goals from the 26-year-old are a bonus. McAvoy had just 12 during the regular season and that was a career high.
That final shift doesn’t show up in any traditional stats, but it was peak Charlie McAvoy. His success is tougher to measure because it’s hard to count opponents’ shots that never had a chance to be taken.
Too often this season and especially in the playoffs, the Bruins’ inability to get the puck out of their zone turned into opponents’ scoring chances and frequently into goals. McAvoy has at times been the culprit. But on Tuesday those three possible late Panther chances never materialized because of McAvoy, who had his best game of the playoffs.
“Charlie does it all. Even when he’s not scoring. He just leads and leads,” Charlie Coyle said. “Whatever the situation calls for in the game, he does.”
This is the player McAvoy always wanted to be. While other players his age were emulating Alex Ovechkin, Jaromir Jagr or even Nicklas Lindstrom, McAvoy wanted to be Drew Doughty. The Kings defenseman never scored more than 16 goals in a season, but his huge minutes, leadership and defensive play were essential to two Stanley Cups for the Kings and even earned him Hart Trophy (MVP) votes in three different seasons.
“That was always the dream. Drew Doughty was one of the best I’d seen growing up, watching him play all those big minutes and be an outstanding defenseman for their team,” McAvoy said. “That was always my goal, what I wanted to build for. … I want to shoulder a lot of responsibility for my team. I take a lot of pride in the opportunity to play a lot of minutes and all situations.”
McAvoy’s leadership is hard to quantify too, but it might be what he’s most proud of. He studied Zdeno Chara, his early partner on defense early in his career, and Patrice Bergeron, his teammate for six years. He revered the example set by both men and was a devotee of the culture they created.
When Bergeron retired last year, the Bruins made him a video from his former teammates. While most of those players used their recorded messages to thank Bergeron, McAvoy made a promise.
“What you’ve built here is special,” he said. “I promise I’ll do everything I can to take good care of it.”
It wasn’t just a throw-away line. McAvoy takes honoring that legacy seriously.
“I’ve learned a lot from those guys, things I’ve tried to get better at and sort of embody,” said McAvoy, now an alternate captain. “It’s always a work in progress, but I definitely feel like I can lead this team well.”
Mason Lohrei has been an eager pupil.
“He’s been a role model to me,” the rookie defenseman said. “He’s always giving me little things to think about or work on. I want to play big minutes someday. I want to play power play and penalty kill. I want to start games, finish games and be that kind of player for this team. Watching him is super beneficial because he does all of those things well.”
Brad Marchand is usually the most vocal among the Bruins leaders, but with the captain out for Games 4 and 5 with an injury, McAvoy became more vocal.
“He’s very quiet,” Montgomery said. “But you could see him talking a lot tonight on the bench. His play was instrumental in our victory.”
In all, he had a goal, an assist and four blocked shots. He played 23 minutes, 36 seconds including that 79-second shift to help seal the win.
By Thursday, he just wanted to keep it going.
“I get another chance tomorrow to do everything I can for this team,” he said. “I can’t wait.”
