Boston Bruins: Charlie McAvoy must find immediate consistency

Charlie McAvoy is among the group of Boston Bruins players that has missed practices in the lead up to the team’s ‘Return To Play’.

Unfortunately, such is his role on the Boston Bruins blue-line already, Charlie McAvoy can’t allow the missed practice time to equate to inconsistent form when game-time hits.

Last season, Charlie McAvoy endured a torrid time when it came to his goal-scoring. In his previous two seasons, he’d consistently scored 7 goals and put up assists around the twenty mark.

This season just passed, he failed to score a goal until February, though he did grab 17 assists in that time frame. Bruins fans, who were fairly or unfairly, expecting the next step saw this as a step backwards.

More from Editorials

• Pavel Zacha’s veteran status leading to bigger role in 2023-24
• The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
• Why the Bruins should wait to name a captain until after the season
• 3 players the Bruins can, 3 players could trade, 3 players they shouldn’t trade
• It’s time to offer Jake DeBrusk a contract extension

Hence why Charlie McAvoy may find himself judged harshly if he has a similar slow start at the commencement of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Now don’t get me wrong, he’s still on of the most underrated defensemen in the league; he’s handled minutes on the top pairing basically his whole NHL career, stepping in alongside Zdeno Chara as a youngster fresh out of Boston University.

Such is the smarts of the Boston Bruins management, they paired him with the veteran to ensure he developed his defensive game as a NHL player, and it has paid off.

Simply put though, the Boston Bruins fan base will be wanting and needing Charlie McAvoy to shake off any ‘unfit to play’ concerns and bust out like he did this past February, netting his first 4 goals of the season and adding 9 assists.

That is the form they need him to start this post-season in; it can’t take him four months to warm up this time, the Bruins can barely afford it to take him four games, unless we’re counting the exhibition fixture and round-robin tournament!

For any player heading into the bubbles in Toronto or Edmonton, being instantly consistent and in post-season form is going to be the biggest challenge.

This isn’t just going to be the case for Charlie McAvoy, but he along with David Pastrnak need to be at their best instantly for the Boston Bruins, even if they haven’t had as much conditioning time. Everyone else that has missed practices have slightly lower-key roles.