Charlie McAvoy is heading into the 2026-27 season with a six-game suspension hanging over him, and he’s still sounding like he didn’t quite see it coming.
The Boston Bruins defenseman was suspended after he swung his stick at Zach Benson’s head late in Game 6, with Buffalo already leading 4-1 in the closing minutes. Most players will be getting their seasons started later this month or in early October, but McAvoy’s opening stretch will be delayed.
Earlier this week, McAvoy revisited the incident and said he had hoped to make his case. “I wanted to go there and try to put my best foot forward, try to explain myself, but obviously I know I did something wrong that I shouldn't have done but the gravity of the penalty and all that stuff was where I was really hoping to explain myself,” McAvoy said.
When pressed on the play itself, he pointed to the danger of the situation. “I thought it was extremely dangerous; you're talking about broken legs, broken knees, everything. 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.”
But the sequence in that series cut both ways, and Buffalo fans have every reason to remember that. Earlier in the same period of that game, Josh Doan beat McAvoy and David Pastrnak to the puck, sent it back toward the middle, and Zach Benson finished the play to make it 3-1.
After that, McAvoy responded by throwing a forearm into Doan’s head and driving him into the boards.
Later in the third period, about two minutes before Benson’s hit on McAvoy, the Bruins defenseman also had Rasmus Dahlin on the ice while pulling back on his arm.
Those weren’t isolated flashes. They were part of a pattern McAvoy carried through the series against Buffalo, and that’s why the six-game suspension doesn’t exactly feel like a shock from the outside. The Sabres got the last word in the series, and now McAvoy will be watching the first six games of the season from the press box.
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