Boston Bruins
“We still don’t know how long he’s going to be out.”
Charlie McAvoy is going to be on the shelf after undergoing facial surgery. John Tlumacki/Boston Globe
November 19, 2025 | 5:23 PM
3 minutes to read
The Bruins are going to be without their top defenseman for the foreseeable future.
Speaking to reporters in Anaheim ahead of Boston’s game against the Ducks on Wednesday night, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm confirmed that McAvoy has undergone surgery after taking a slap shot to the jaw last Saturday in a win over the Canadiens.
There is no timeline for his return, Boston’s bench boss noted.
“Charlie had facial surgery, successfully,” Sturm said. “He’s doing good. He’s recovering right now at home. We still don’t know how long he’s going to be out.”
An extended absence stands as a brutal setback for both the Bruins and McAvoy — who was playing some of the best hockey of his career over the last few weeks before getting stung by the injury bug once again.
McAvoy has been sidelined since Saturday’s 3-2 win against the Habs at the Bell Centre. Midway through the second period, McAvoy – while out on a shorthanded shift — took a direct hit to the mouth off of a slap shot delivered by Montreal defenseman Noah Dobson
McAvoy immediately hit the ice and covered his hands with his face. As McAvoy — his face covered by a towel — slowly made his way off the frozen sheet with the assistance of head athletic trainer Dustin Stuck, Nikita Zadorov attempted to recover some of his teeth amid the blood pooled out on the ice.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted that McAvoy was eventually cleared to travel back to Boston that night with his teammates, but Boston’s alternate captain was far from being out of the woods in terms of his injuries — with Sturm adding on Monday that McAvoy was still meeting with doctors to determine his best course of action.
Sturm acknowledged after Monday’s morning skate that surgery was still a possibility for McAvoy moving forward.
Before leaving for the West Coast on Tuesday, Sturm confirmed that McAvoy wasn’t going to join his teammates during the four-game trek.
“He will definitely not travel. Let’s put it that way,” Sturm said. “He’s still going to be out, and you will get an update later on, today or tomorrow, about his health condition.”
With McAvoy sidelined, the Bruins did recall Michael Callahan from Providence before flying out west, with the Franklin, Mass. native expected to serve as a depth option on Boston’s battered blue line.
On Wednesday, the Bruins will likely trot out a similar six-man defensive unit as the one deployed on Monday against Carolina — with Henri Jokiharju remaining in the lineup.
During Wednesday’s morning skate, Jokiharju was paired with Hampus Lindholm, Mason Lohrei skated with Andrew Peeke, and Nikita Zadorov was on a grouping with Jonathan Aspirot.
McAvoy’s injury comes amid a stretch where the Bruins have won nine out of their last 12 games — with Boston’s renewed focus in the D-zone giving Sturm’s team a sizable lift.
A Zadorov-McAvoy D pairing was a force at the time of McAvoy’s injury, with Boston outscoring teams, 5-2, during that duo’s 132:14 of 5-on-5 reps this season.
The road won’t get any easier for a banged-up Bruins roster moving forward, especially on Wednesday against an upstart Ducks team that currently ranks second in the NHL in goals per game (3.63).
“It’s a good test,” Sturm said Tuesday of this road trip. “Again, we had a good meeting, I thought, this morning with the guys. Every team goes through this. … Yeah, it’s not easy. But also, I think that’s a good chance to show what this team is really all about, right?
“I’m not saying wins and losses, just — I look at the character, too, that we have in our room, the details we have to have, the structure we have to have, and some guys get, now, opportunities. They were waiting for for a long time. So now it’s their chance.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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