The NHL announced on Tuesday evening that Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy will be suspended for the first six games of next season, the result of a slash on Buffalo’s Zach Benson in Game 6 of the Bruins-Sabres series.
McAvoy was given a major and a game misconduct on the play in real time, with that play occurring with less than 90 seconds left in the Bruins’ season-ending loss.
From the NHL:
(I didn’t know the league still made these “look, here’s how we reached this conclusion” explainer videos, but they’re as weird as they’ve ever been.)
Regardless of the colors you support, there’s really no way you can argue that McAvoy didn’t deserve some kind of supplemental discipline, as you simply can’t swing your stick at an opponent like that.
Sure, Benson deserved something for slew footing McAvoy prior to the incident, but you can’t retaliate by chopping down with your stick.
The sticking point from a Bruins perspective will be that the length of the suspension seems completely arbitrary, in keeping with NHL tradition.
Consider, for example, this play by Alex Pietrangelo:
That play came with an identical scoreline and pretty much the same amount of time left on the clock, and Pietrangelo was suspended for one playoff game.
I guess you could argue that at the NHL Currency Exchange, one playoff game = six regular season games, but who knows?
It’s a fool’s errand to try to get inside George Parros & Co’s collective brain and understand how they arrive at whatever conclusion, and it also feels a little silly to complain about the length of the suspension when it’s obvious McAvoy needed to get something.
Regardless, McAvoy will now miss around 7% of next season for the B’s.
McAvoy had been suspended twice prior to this incident, both times for checks to the head (one against Josh Anderson, then with the Blue Jackets, in the 2019 playoffs and one against Oliver Ekman-Larsson, then with the Panthers, during the 2023-2024 regular season).
There was already going to be plenty of juice in the first Bruins-Sabres match-up of next season, so this will only add fuel to the fire.
If nothing else, at least this news ties up the last remaining loose end from this past season for the Bruins.
Plus, now McAvoy has some extra time to get all of his dental work done. There’s always a bright side, right?
