During an arduous regular season in which almost every individual in the B’s dressing room missed some stretch of time due to COVID protocols, Charlie McAvoy was the one of the lucky few to dodge some time on the shelf — with David Pastrnak standing as the only other B’s player to avoid protocols in 2021-22.
But in a brutal break for both McAvoy and the Bruins, the B’s top defenseman will be unavailable for the most pivotal stretch of games in the 2021-22 campaign — as the Bruins announced shortly ahead of puck drop that McAvoy will miss Sunday’s Game 4 showdown against the Hurricanes due to COVID-19 protocols.
Given the current testing protocols in place, there stands a chance that McAvoy may also be unavailable for Tuesday’s Game 5 showdown down in Raleigh as well.
With McAvoy ruled out, here is Boston's expected D pairs for Sunday afternoon:
Matt Grzelcyk - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Connor Clifton
Mike Reilly - Josh Brown
Well, there’s really no other way to put it — this stands as a monumental loss for the Bruins, especially with Hampus Lindholm already ruled out for Game 4.
McAvoy has been as advertised this series when it comes to his smooth transition play, shutdown capabilities, physical punch and ability to log heavy minutes — with McAvoy averaging close to SIX more minutes per game than the next Bruin this postseason (25:15, Marchand is next at 19:34).
If Boston wants to leave TD Garden with a 2-2 draw in their best-of-seven series with the Canes, they’re going to need quite the performance in net from Jeremy Swayman, because Carolina has to be licking their chops upon looking at this D corps.