Boston Bruins

Emotional Charlie McAvoy On Season-Ending Injury: ‘It Cost Me My Sanity’

Published

1 month ago

April 18, 2025

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

BRIGHTON, Mass. — Charlie McAvoy got to live out a dream when he had the chance to play for the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off, serving as an alternate captain for the Stars and Stripes.

His dream, though, quickly became a nightmare.

At first, a shoulder injury he suffered during the USA’s opening game against Finland was believed to be relatively minor. It turned out to be worse than anyone could’ve imagined.

After playing two days later against Canada, the pain in McAvoy’s shoulder became unbearable.

He couldn’t sleep. Red streaks stretched from his shoulder to his chest. No one could figure out what was wrong.

A visit to Massachusetts General Hospital not only revealed that McAvoy had a Grade 5 separation of his AC joint but that he had also developed a “rare” staph infection that required an immediate irrigation and debridement procedure.

Three months later, McAvoy’s shoulder is nearly healed, and he’s off the antibiotics that treated the infection.

But he’s still coming to grips with what happened.

“Mentally, emotionally, physically, I’ve gone through so much because of that damn experience,” McAvoy said as the Boston Bruins cleaned out their lockers on Thursday at Warrior Ice Arena. “It cost me my season. It cost me my sanity in a lot of ways. None of this has been easy, and I get emotional talking about it. Yeah, it was an incredible experience, and I waited my whole life to be a part of something like that. But the way that it ended, and the aftermath of it, and what I had to go through, it cost me a lot more than I was willing to give.”

McAvoy missed the final 24 games of the regular season.

In a sense, his injury signaled to the Bruins they had nothing left to fight for. On the fringes of the playoff picture to begin with, they knew their hopes of making the postseason were slim without their top defenseman.

In a series of sweeping moves at the trade deadline, the Bruins shipped Brad Marchand, Brandon Carlo, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic, and Justin Brazeau out the door, and plunged into a nosedive.

Confined to a sling, all McAvoy could do was watch as the season fell into disarray.

READ MORE: Charlie McAvoy Rejoins An Unfamiliar Bruins Roster

“I wanted to get back and play with these guys,” McAvoy said. “I wanted to embrace this. If it’s going to suck, it’s going to suck together, at least.”

Despite the little chance he had of making it back before the end of the season, McAvoy began skating with the intent of returning, just in case the Bruins somehow found a way to get hot down the stretch.

They did not.

Once Boston was officially eliminated from playoff contention, McAvoy was ruled out for the remainder of the year. His season was over after he appeared in only 50 games.

“I didn’t think it would cost me my season,” said McAvoy. “I’ve had an AC injury before. I was like, ‘I’ll be back,’ and that just wasn’t the case. I think from the beginning, I probably should have known that I wasn’t going to make it back, and that it was a longer rehab than I knew it would be. Maybe that was just me being a fool.”

To this day, no one knows exactly how McAvoy contracted the infection. The lack of a definitive answer only made it harder for him to cope with the situation.

“It could have been my Under Armour that was dirty, or my gear, or this or that, or a pillow at the hotel, like it could have been anything,” McAvoy said. “That’s why there’s no ill will with anybody involved. And guess what? We can sit here and talk about it, and the head of infectious disease at Mass General doesn’t know how it happened. We could speculate all day, and trust me, I have. You think I don’t want to blame somebody for this? I have spent that time, and I’ve shed those tears. The reality is that there’s no one to blame. It’s just bad luck that this happened.”

CHECK OUT: Charlie McAvoy’s Injury Creates Long-Term Issues For Bruins (And Hockey)

Even after all that McAvoy has been through, he still hopes to play in more competitions like the 4 Nations. The 2026 Winter Olympic Games are still circled on his calendar.

As for this summer’s IIHF World Champions, that’s off the table as McAvoy still isn’t cleared to play. Not that he’d even consider it after missing so much time for the Bruins.

“I would certainly have a little bit of guilt behind the fact that I wasn’t able to come back and help my team,” said McAvoy. “To then go play hockey somewhere else, it wouldn’t sit great with me.”

That’s all McAvoy has had to focus on for the last three months. The Bruins, and his inability to help them.

But now that the Bruins are finally putting this miserable season behind them, so too can he.

A leader in the locker room, McAvoy will be tasked with helping David Pastrnak piece Boston’s shattered culture back together and usher the franchise into a new era.

For the first time in three months, he has something to dream of again.

“That starts very quickly after this, getting together and establishing what we want, what our pillars are going to look like, what we want the culture to get back to, and how we’re going to do it,” said McAvoy. “What an opportunity, right? What an exciting challenge that’s going to be for us.”