There were a lot of outspoken Boston Bruins on Thursday night after the team lost its sixth consecutive game. It was nice to see Charlie McAvoy face the music, as he has been struggling this season, and was one of the leading causes of the goal that put the Anaheim Ducks ahead for good. However, some of his comments were a bit interesting, considering the mistakes he has been making.
""This is devastating — the way we're losing these games. It's just, it's killing us. We're fighting so hard and we just can't stop beating ourselves. So it's, yeah, it's pretty defeating right now.""Charlie McAvoy
McAvoy is far from the weakest link in a defensive unit that has been hemorrhaging scoring opportunities. The hybrid defensive system Marco Sturm wants the team to run has been causing some confusion, which the players must figure out. But it was McAvoy's saying, "We just can't stop beating ourselves," that made me take a second look.
If there's anyone who needs to stop beating themselves, it's McAvoy. He overhandles pucks in the offensive zone that cause turnovers, he gets beaten up the ice because he chases hits in the neutral zone, and he and Mason Lohrei have entirely lost the plot on how to defend in their own zone.
A good leader uses the term "we" when talking about his own triumphs. I'm not so sure that a good leader, or someone who is self-aware of the problem with the Bruins, would go into a press scrum and say, "We" need to stop beating ourselves when he is the biggest culprit. Those comments coming out in the media might not have gone over well with some of his teammates.
Charlie McAvoy must be better
In order for the Bruins to be a playoff contender this season, they needed David Pastrnak to be a Hart Trophy candidate, McAvoy to be a Norris Trophy candidate, and Jeremy Swayman to be a Vezina Trophy candidate. Through the team's first nine games, neither of them is even close to that conversation.
The Bruins are paying a lot of money to those three players, and only Pastrnak is living up to the contract because of how good a deal they have him on. The state of the rest of the roster might be giving McAvoy and Swayman a bit of a pass, but they simply haven't been good enough. McAvoy is nowhere near the quality of the $9.5 million the Bruins pay him annually.
The fan opinion on McAvoy is quickly turning, and some reactions on social media weren't kind, to put it lightly. If the Bruins continue to struggle and the McAvoy-Mason Lohrei pairing continues to give up big goals, it'll only get worse. The Bruins hoped that McAvoy would bring some stability to Lohrei this season, but the Bruins' alternate captain has to fix himself before he can fix anyone else.