When the clock was winding down at the end of last spring's first-round playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6, Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was racing back for an icing call when Sabres forward Zach Benson slew-footed him into the boards.
McAvoy, clearly upset, got up and gave Benson a vicious slash that ended up costing him a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety. McAvoy was slapped with a match penalty and sent off for the rest of the game. McAvoy's hearing left him with a six-game suspension for the beginning of the 2026-27 season. After a captain practiced at Warrior Ice Arena on Thursday, Boston's blueliner spoke about the incident.
Bruins Charlie McAvoy addresses six-game suspension
McAvoy was asked about the hearing with the NHL and what he said, while Benson got away with his dirty play, as is so often the case with teams advancing in the playoffs, the league doesn't like handing down a penalty to give a team a disadvantage going into the next round.
“I thought that was extremely dangerous; you’re talking about broken legs, broken ankles, knees, everything,'' said McAvoy. "When you go into the boards at full speed, that, in my mind, is one of the most dangerous and vulnerable situations you can be in. Every single year there's case after case of guys leaving the ice on stretchers because of stuff like that.
“I felt like that was a deliberate play that could have resulted in a serious injury for me, and that was why I kind of snapped. If I didn’t have a broken hand, maybe I would have fought him, but I did. I lost my wits to a certain degree, and I have regrets about that. It's something I have to learn from.”
McAvoy is correct in his assessment, but given the way he called out the league earlier in the year about the lack of discipline for the dirty hit on him by Sandis Vilmanis of the Florida Panthers, the league was looking to drop the hammer on McAvoy.
As for Benson and McAvoy potentially fighting if his hand wasn't broken, you can bet that if he dropped the gloves, Benson likely would have curled up and wanted nothing to do with it. It's what players like him do: dish it out, but when it's time to take it, they wimp out. We'll see if McAvoy wants to settle it on the ice this year in one of the four matchups, and we'll see if Benson is as tough as his dirty play is. Unlikely, but you never know.
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