Well, this is a shitty little parting gift from the season.
Charlie McAvoy has been suspended six regular-season games to start the 2026-27 NHL season after his slash on Buffalo Sabres forward Zach Benson in Game 6 of the Bruins’ first-round playoff loss. The NHL Department of Player Safety issued the suspension after an in-person hearing, which opened the door for more than a five-game ban.
So yeah.
The Bruins are already starting next season down their biggest horse on the blue line.
And I’ll say this right away: Charlie McAvoy is my favorite player on the Bruins.
That does not mean I’m going to sit here and pretend the slash was nothing. It was ugly. It was late in the game, late in the series, and basically came with Boston’s season already bleeding out on the ice. McAvoy got tripped by Benson, popped up pissed off, and swung his stick into Benson’s midsection. In the game, McAvoy got a five-minute major and a game misconduct, while Benson was also penalized for tripping. Buffalo won 4-1 and closed the series 4-2.
That is playoff frustration boiling over.
That is also the kind of thing the league is going to hammer when it wants to make a point.
And because it’s McAvoy, the conversation gets even louder.
Big Mac is not some random third-pair defenseman throwing a tantrum. He is Boston’s top defenseman, one of the emotional engines of the team, and the guy the Bruins lean on in basically every hard situation. Power play, penalty kill, defensive-zone chaos, late-game shifts, big minutes, ugly matchups — that dude eats all of it.
Which is exactly why this hurts.
The Bruins don’t just lose “a defenseman” for six games.
They lose the guy who controls the temperature back there.
McAvoy posted a career-high 61 points in 69 games this season, which is a monster number for a defenseman and a reminder that when he’s right, he’s not just a tough minutes guy. He drives offense, moves the puck, creates pressure, and gives Boston that heavy top-pair identity.
Now the first six games of next season turn into a blue-line stress test.
That means more responsibility for everybody else. More pressure on the coaching staff to balance pairings. More chances for someone to step up next to Hampus Lindholm, Mason Lohrei, or whoever the Bruins are rolling with by opening night. It also means the Bruins can’t afford one of those sleepy, half-dead October starts where everyone says, “It’s early,” while points quietly disappear into the gutter.
Because in the NHL, six games is not nothing.
That’s twelve possible points.
That can be the difference between a playoff matchup you want and a playoff matchup that makes you want to walk into the ocean wearing jeans.
Now, was six games too much?
I get why Bruins fans are pissed. There’s always going to be the “Player Safety wheel of fortune” argument, and honestly, the NHL has earned that criticism plenty of times. One guy gets one game. Another guy gets five. Another gets nothing. Everyone screams. Nobody knows where the line is. That’s basically the Department of Player Safety experience in a nutshell.
Some Bruins coverage has already pointed out the debate around consistency, especially compared with past stick-swinging incidents that drew lighter discipline.
But the league was probably never letting this slide lightly.
It was a two-handed slash. It came after the whistle/away from the natural flow of play. It was retaliation. It happened in a playoff elimination game with the temperature already stupid. And McAvoy has prior discipline history, including previous suspensions for head checks.
That combination is basically a flashing red sign for the NHL.
So now Boston pays the price next season.
And honestly, the most frustrating part is that it came at the very end of the year, when the Bruins were already cooked. If you’re going to lose your mind and take a suspension, at least let it be in some blood-and-guts moment where the game is still there. This felt more like pure frustration after Buffalo had already grabbed the wheel and shoved Boston out of the playoffs.
That’s what sucks.
Charlie plays with edge. That’s part of why I love him.
He’s not some soft, pretty-skating defenseman who floats around looking for easy points. He plays pissed off. He takes punishment. He gives punishment. He has that old-school Bruins pulse where you can tell the jersey actually matters to him.
But there’s a line between edge and losing the plot.
This was losing the plot.
And now the Bruins have to start the 2026-27 season without him.
The good news is McAvoy can still participate in training camp and preseason before serving the suspension during the regular season. So this is not a “he disappears all fall” situation. He can be around, get reps, ramp up, and help set the tone — he just can’t play those first six games that actually count.
The bad news is the Bruins need every clean start they can get.
This team is coming off a playoff exit, the roster still needs answers, and the Atlantic is not exactly handing out free points like Halloween candy. Starting the year without your top defenseman is annoying at best and damaging at worst.
For McAvoy, this has to be a reset moment.
Take the punishment.
Own the stupid moment.
Come back angry, but smarter.
Because the Bruins need the version of Charlie McAvoy who can play huge minutes, push offense, shut down top lines, and lead the back end. They don’t need him watching from a suite in October because he let a playoff frustration swing turn into a six-game suspension.
Still, I’m not jumping off the Charlie McAvoy train.
Not even close.
He’s still my guy.
He’s still one of the few Bruins who feels like a true identity player for this franchise. When you think of what Boston wants to be — hard, heavy, pissed off, skilled enough to hurt you, miserable to play against — McAvoy fits that perfectly.
But this one is on him.
Six games.
No excuses.
The Bruins start next season without their horse, and Charlie has to come back reminding everyone why the team misses him so damn much in the first place.