BSJ Daily Briefing 03.06.18: Charlie McAvoy Injury Watch Day 4 (updated, and it's not good)

Good morning!

A few random thoughts while we keep an eye on the potential snow totals for  nor'easter Round 2 (joy) Wednesday night-Thursday...

• This is Charlie McAvoy Injury Watch Day 4, and it's very weird. We'd understand it if it was the Patriots, but this is the Bruins. They're usually very upfront about injuries. Even Bruce Cassidy, who has always shot it straight since being named B's coach, is avoiding the questions. Strange.


• McAvoy was injured on Saturday night. It's now Tuesday morning and McAvoy has to be re-evaluated again? That doesn't make any sense.


• I asked our resident medical expert, Dr. Jessica Flynn if this could be a type of scenario where they needed the swelling to go down in order to accurately diagnose what's going on. "No. The MCL is outside of the joint. You go on clinical exam and MRI," she said.


• What about a secret surgery? "Those injuries rarely need surgery," Dr. Flynn said.


• It's possible the team doctor had some sort of issue where he couldn't see McAvoy until this week, but outside of that, there has to be a real fear that this is a serious situation and the Bruins are stalling while McAvoy seeks out different opinions.

• That, obviously, would not be optimal for the Bruins.


• The Celtics took care of business last night against the tanking Bulls, even without Kyrie Irving. The game got me thinking, and I'm sure this isn't an original observation about the NBA, but the league has a real problem with this whole tanking thing.


• I mean, after the Rockets game last week, how many real games do the Celtics even have left this season? Four, maybe? How do people buy tickets to these games when you know neither team wants to be there (but if you do, I'm sure you're checking out our friends at SeatsForEveryone.com!)? Not to mention that the TV ratings have to go in the tank as well. Just when the NBA is starting to get some competition again (March Madness, NHL's much better close to the season, baseball, golf getting ramped up) it's product is its worst. Not good.


• I meant mentioning this on Monday, but if you didn't check out Sean McAdam's piece about his exclusive conversation with David Ortiz about what he has and will tell J.D. Martinez, you have to click over there right now. This is the type of content you can't get anywhere else but BSJ. Just Ortiz and McAdam talking ball at spring training. I could read stuff like that all day long.


• Sean's got another good one cooking up, so make sure you sign up today! Who else are you going to trust for Red Sox coverage?


• As always, BSJ is homegrown, home-owned and your well-earned money stays in the Greater Boston area. We thank you for your support!

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