The hope was that Boston returning to some level of good health this month would bump their overall game back up to its highest level headed into the regular season break for the 4 Nations Faceoff tournament.
That’s exactly what has happened with the return of top defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who has scored a goal in each of the last two games since the birth of his son Rhys, boosting the Bruins to a solid 3-0 win over the Minnesota Wild at TD Garden on Tuesday night. The impressive victory against a quality Minnesota club didn’t really allow the B’s to gain any ground as they still sit sixth in the Atlantic Division, though they are now tied in points with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the final wild-card spot.
The Lightning, of course, have three games in hand on the B’s and currently hold a 23-20 advantage in terms of ROW as the first tiebreaker for a playoff spot. That’s part of the difficult road that the Black and Gold face if they hope to earn a playoff big in the final two-plus months of the regular season, but either way they are going to need performers like McAvoy to be at their top level for the rest of the season.
McAvoy was up to that challenge in the shutout win over Minnesota when he tipped home a David Pastrnak shot through traffic to get Boston on the board in the second period and finished with 21:12 of strong defensive work supporting Jeremy Swayman in his shutout effort.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Charlie McAvoy
— NESN (@NESN) February 5, 2025
⭐ ⭐ Matthew Poitras
⭐ Jeremy Swayman 🐶 pic.twitter.com/UtVqH3yZrW
That’s a big-time performance as the Bruins are aiming to win out with two games left on the schedule ahead of the 4 Nations break. It was also a very different kind of score for the defenseman, who very rarely finds himself down by the net hunting for loose pucks and point shots.
“We had two guys up high with [David Pastrnak] and Mason [Lohrei] so I might as well get low and get to the net,” said McAvoy. “I think that was my first tip in. I was really excited afterward because I don’t think I’ve scored a goal like that.
“We were just excited that we scored. These games matter a lot. To that point, I think we’d been playing a pretty good game and we needed to get on the board. So that was nice.”
The overall game from McAvoy was the thing. He was playing strong on the penalty kill and paying attention to the details in the D-zone, and actively looking for offensive and ways to spark things for a team that still very clearly has trouble scoring pucks even when they do get loads of offensive chances.
“It was a really good all-around effort from our guys…it was a good showing. They played determined hockey, and they were focused,” said Joe Sacco. “It’s a great to see other guys contributing offensively. You need secondary scoring in this league. We did a good job activating the defenseman at the right time and they were doing a good job along the walls.”
It was striking to see just how good the Bruins could be with McAvoy’s ‘A’ game in the last couple of games, as opposed to the minus-3 performance he had in a pretty uninspired loss to the Winnipeg Jets in his first game back from injury.
Longtime teammate Brandon Carlo had his own theories about what is working for McAvoy right now when it comes to putting the puck in the net.
Brandon Carlo on Charlie McAvoy scoring two goals in the last two games: “I think he needs to have more babies.” pic.twitter.com/hXgvnLMgGo
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) February 5, 2025
“I think he needs to have more babies because he’s got two [goals] in [two] games right now, so that’s working out well for him” said a smiling Carlo. “When he’s involved offensively it’s great. Rhys is definitely pushing him harder on the offensive side of the puck and we’ll tell him to keep that up with Charlie.”
The other part of it for McAvoy and the rest of the defense corps was killing three penalties in the third period while they were protecting a two-goal lead. The PK has been a source of discontent at times this season, but Carlo, McAvoy, Nikita Zadorov and Andrew Peeke stepped up and provided for the backbone for a special teams unit that didn’t have any breakdowns against the Wild.
“They had some good pushes, but overall we did a good job defending,” said Carlo. “We were just trying to take away time and space as much as possible, and I thought we did a much better job of that [against Minnesota] on the rushes.
“They couldn’t set up in the zone as easily and it was just kind of holding the line a little bit better. Then in zone making good reads to pressure when possible and getting our clears down 200 feet was obviously also a priority.”
The Bruins won’t be at full force until after the 4 Nations break as Hampus Lindholm won’t be making his return until then in late February, but that should set the B’s up for a real shot at a strong final sprint to the end of the regular season. It’s more precautionary rather than a setback for an important player that’s been out with a lower-body injury since before Thanksgiving, and it will give the Bruins the luxury of bringing Lindholm along with a string of practices as the team is coming out of the 4 Nations Faceoff tournament.
It will make the Bruins pretty formidable on the back with Lindholm and McAvoy at the top of the back end, an improving Mason Lohrei and solid stay-at-home defensemen Peeke and Carlo holding up their end of the bargain right now. But it all begins and ends with McAvoy playing at his highest level possible, and the last couple of games illustrated just how tough Boston can be to beat when their top defenseman is operating at that level.