Bruins
“It’s all just motivation, really, to not feel like this again. Never been here, and I don’t want to be here again.”
Charlie McAvoy could only shrug his shoulders when asked about his 2024-25 season.
“Not a great year, not really, by any stretch,” the Bruins defenseman said Thursday morning at Warrior Ice Arena. There were certainly some pockets of good memories, I guess. But overall, really a year to forget — with an unfortunate ending on my side.
“It’s all just motivation, really, to not feel like this again. Never been here, and I don’t want to be here again.”
For the first time since McAvoy first arrived in Boston in April 2017, the Bruins are out of the playoff picture.
Several factors hindered the Bruins all season long, be it Jeremy Swayman’s struggles in net, Boston’s scoring problems, and severe regression within the team’s stringent defensive structure.
But even when the Bruins were in freefall ahead of a trade deadline sell-off, McAvoy could only sit and watch from afar as the team’s top brass dismantled an established leadership core.
McAvoy missed Boston’s final 25 games of the 2024-25 season — a miserable stretch during an already arduous campaign in which the Bruins sported a record of 6-15-4.
Even if McAvoy’s bruising style of play and ability to chew up minutes wasn’t going to be enough to lift the Bruins out of the cellar in the Eastern Conference, those final two months spent off the ice took their toll on the 27-year-old defenseman.
And for the Bruins’ alternate captain, it comes as a cruel twist of irony that an event that he had circled on his calendar for over a year — the 4 Nations Face-Off — would be the thing that brought about so much pain this winter.
“I’ve gone through so much because of that damn experience,” McAvoy acknowledged. “Like, it cost me my season. It cost me my sanity in a lot of ways. Like, none of this has been easy, and I get emotional. … 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, and that’s unfortunate, but it’s over now. And now I can finally put it to bed. And after we talk about it, I don’t want to talk about it ever again, honestly. Because it did cost me. It cost me a lot.”
Earning the opportunity to represent the United States alongside other NHL stars was a long-awaited dream for McAvoy. The physical blueliner made his presence felt throughout the first few games of the international tournament.
But a late cross-check delivered by Joel Armia in Team USA’s win over Finland on Feb. 13 started a cascade of misfortunes for McAvoy.
Despite the evident pain doled out by Armia’s actions, McAvoy remained in the lineup two days later for the Americans’ dramatic 3-1 win over Canada at Bell Centre.
It was the last game McAvoy played this season. A pain-killing shot administered by Team USA’s staff before that matchup with Canada led to a staph infection — causing significant pain once McAvoy and his teammates returned to Boston for the final days of the tournament.
The severity and swiftness of the infection eventually forced McAvoy to spend several days at Mass. General Hospital, where he received antibiotics and had to undergo an irrigation and debridement procedure on Feb. 18.
McAvoy had to spent several days at Mass. General undergoing treatment in order to curb the spread of the infection.
“It could have been my Under Armour that was dirty, or my gear or this or that, or a pillow at the hotel,” McAvoy said of what led to the infection. “It could have been anything. 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 diseases at Mass General doesn’t know how it happened. So we can speculate all day. And trust me, I have. You think I don’t want to blame somebody for this?”
Compounding his issues, it was revealed that McAvoy suffered a “significant” AC joint injury in his right shoulder due to the cross-check, further pushing back his recovery.
When he left Mass General on Feb. 20, his right arm was propped up in a sling, while a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) was fixed in place to regularly administer antibiotics to his infected shoulder.
He did not realize it at the moment, but McAvoy’s season had come to an end.
“I feel a lot about every emotion you can have. I’m not angry at any one individual. I’m angry at what happened,” McAvoy said. “I’m sad about what happened. A little bit of the ‘why me’ — as I’m sure anyone would ask, with what happened. So it’s a lot of different emotions. … It’s a little bit of just anger about the situation.
“It cost me my season. It cost me a lot, and I spent a lot of time emotionally, just sitting with it because that was the reality of it. I’m sitting at home with a PICC line and this and that, and I can’t play and I can’t help my team.”
McAvoy’s AC joint injury alone had a projected three-month recovery timeline, while he shared that he only just got off his antibiotics treatment last week.
Had the Bruins punched their ticket to the postseason, he might have been in a spot at this stage in his recovery to seriously push for playing time once again.
Instead, a long offseason now awaits — one that should give him ample time to rest and recover in hopes of a better result in 2025-26.
“This year, I don’t even feel like I played hockey this year, which is so unfortunate. … It’s disheartening in every way. And then you’re watching your friends, your teammates, struggle, you’re trying to be there to help with that. You can’t.
“So it’s sort of so many things this year were just unfortunate. So there’s frustration, there’s certainly motivation to never be here again, to find ways for us to improve this culture, to get back to what it looks like. Because this isn’t a good place to be right now.”
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
