Bruins Thinking of McAvoy as Team Gears Up for Weekend Return 

BOSTON – As the Bruins continued to ramp up towards their return to game action this weekend, their thoughts were also on teammate Charlie McAvoy as the Boston blue liner continues his recovery from what the club announced was an infection stemming from an injury suffered during the 4 Nations Face-Off last week in Montreal.

Bruins head team physician Dr. Peter Asnis announced on Wednesday morning that McAvoy suffered an injury to his right shoulder acromioclavicular joint on Feb. 13 in Team USA’s game against Finland.

Asnis’ statement added that McAvoy, “underwent treatment, which was administered by Team USA’s medical staff. Upon returning to Boston, he developed increasing pain, for which he was evaluated by the Boston Bruins’ medical staff. After undergoing x-rays, MRIs, and bloodwork, he was diagnosed as having an infection in his right shoulder, as well as a significant injury to his AC joint.

“He underwent an irrigation and debridement procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital on February 18. He remains in the hospital, where he is being treated with IV antibiotics, and his condition is improving.”

Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said that right now the team’s focus is on McAvoy’s health and not when the defenseman may return to play, saying only that the club does not expect him to play in the “short term.”

“As far as we’re concerned, first and foremost we’re concerned with Charlie’s health,” Sacco said following Wednesday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena. “We just want to wish him the best moving forward here in his recovery. That’s the main concern for us right now. The incident is unlucky, but we want to wish him the best with his health moving forward…we’ll see where it goes from there.

“We’re planning that we have a game without him on Saturday. We’ve got to do our best to get our guys that are here ready for that game coming up on Saturday which we did today.

“He seems to be doing better which is a good sign, but we just want to see him recover from what happened first and then we’ll go from there.”

Charlie Coyle was disappointed for his longtime teammate, who will also be missing Team USA’s championship matchup against Canada on Thursday night at TD Garden.

“It’s just a shame, it’s a shame,” said Coyle. “He’s such a gamer, the way he plays, he plays hard…he was a man possessed playing those games. It was so fun to watch. It fired me up watching and seeing that through the TV. I feel for him. You know how badly he wants to play and contribute and be a part of that Finals and that last game. He’s been a big part of it, been a huge part of it, the way he’s played those last couple.

“You hate to see that, you want guys to be healthy. Both teams want to be healthy because they want to win against the best and have the full team out there. On the other hand, too, you want to make sure Charlie’s good so we can have him back and playing and playing good hockey, healthy hockey for us too.

“You never want to see that regardless but especially someone on your team here. Definitely feel for Charlie and hope he’s doing alright.”

Gearing Back Up

The Bruins, meanwhile, held their second straight day of practice as they gear up for a return to game action on Saturday night against Anaheim. Boston is well aware of the challenge it faces over the final 25 games of the regular season as the Black & Gold currently sit a point out of the playoff structure.

“We have to play some good hockey here in the next 25 games to put ourselves in a position to compete for a playoff spot,” said Sacco. “We have 25 games left. You can break it down into smaller increments, which is something that we’re gonna look at doing, whether it be three-game series, four games, we’ll take a look at that and break the schedule down a little bit smaller…let’s look short term here, two or three games…try to take care of business in those situations and then move on to the next segment. I think that’s a good way for us to approach this stretch run.”

Bruins alternate captain David Pastrnak was pleased with the team’s effort during the skate.

“Good to push it right now, have a little longer practice, work on things that we feel like we need to get better,” said Pastrnak. “It was a good pace, another day close to playing a game, which we are obviously excited about…we are not in position to look past next game the way we are in the standings. We have to take it game by game. We need every single point so don’t look too far, make sure we give ourselves a chance every game to win and grab the points, those games can go fast. It’s important to stay in the moment.”

Wait, There’s More

• Hampus Lindholm skated on his own but did not practice with the team on Wednesday. “I don’t have a timetable on his return yet either,” said Sacco. “We continue to go through the process with Hampus. When the medical staff feels he’s ready to practice with us again, that will be the next step and then we’ll go from there. That’s as much as I have right now with him.”
• Elias Lindholm, who participated in the 4 Nations Face-Off with Sweden, is expected back at practice on Friday. Brad Marchand and Jeremy Swayman could be back for Saturday’s morning skate. “Those guys that play Thursday will be here Saturday morning hopefully for the pregame skate,” said Sacco. “We’ll talk about Swayman’s situation. He might be here Friday for practice because he’s not playing as much. That’s something that we’ll figure out. Elias Lindholm will be here for practice on Friday.”