Bruins not happy with Team USA after Charlie McAvoy injury saga

After already being ruled out for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off final on Thursday, Charlie McAvoy‘s injury controversy continues. 

The Boston Bruins released a team statement Wednesday addressing McAvoy’s status, being careful not to give any actual details on the nature of the injury. Ultimately, these reports, along with the Bruins’ personnel comments, paint a more unnerving picture of how the team feels. The overwhelming feeling is that Boston is unhappy with the National Team’s care of one of its star players.

Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman reports, "The Bruins were extremely unhappy with the way this was handled, and they felt McAvoy didn’t get the proper care." 

The buzz started to pick up steam about the Bruins’ unhappiness when Team Canada’s GM (and also Bruins GM) Don Sweeney announced the injury and its specifics. That’s rare in today’s NHL, which hinted that Sweeney wanted everyone to know Team USA’s medical staff dropped the ball.

Part of the beef might be that Team USA’s doctors were from the Minnesota Wild organization, and the Bruins are campaigning for medical personnel to be independent of any NHL franchise in the future.

McAvoy’s Injury Causing More Concern Than Anticipated

Charlie McAvoy remains hospitalized to deal with the infection in his right shoulder. It’s easy to imagine that even without full details, the overwhelming feeling about this long hospital admission is never good news.

His teammate, Charlie Coyle, expressed his concerns over the health of his fellow "Charlie" with The Athletic.

"You can’t move. You break a bone. You physically can’t play. But these little things, like an infection or whatever it is, it kind of stings that much more. Depending on what it is, you’re like, 'I feel like I can play. I feel like I can do it.' But there’s something going on there that you need to be cautious of. It stinks either way. Because we all want to go out there and we’re competitive, especially Charlie. You just hate hearing that. You hate seeing that. You just hope that whoever it is, they get back to playing and get back to good health as soon as they can the right way," Coyle said.

In addition, Boston Bruins head coach Joe Sacco has already made his statement to the media, stating to "not be expecting [Charlie McAvoy] in the short term."