McAvoy BOS 4NF bug

BOSTON -- Charlie McAvoy found himself in the left lane. In the backseat were Kiley, his wife, and Rhys, their newborn son, heading home from the hospital. It was not where he wanted to be.

Nervous, like a first-time driver, the first-time dad let cars pass him, maintaining his speed, breathing a sigh of relief when everyone arrived home unscathed.

It has been more than a week of that since Rhys was born Jan. 26, of driving slower than ever before, of marveling at the new, at understanding something that was long anticipated but completely mysterious.

He was driving again, this time home from Warrior Ice Arena, the Boston Bruins' practice rink, when he got a call that would, again, fill him with joy and nerves and anticipation.

Bill Guerin, the general manager for Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off, was on the other end of the line.

McAvoy had been named to the leadership team for the United States, an alternate captain along with Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk. Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews is Team USA's captain.

The tournament, the first best-on-best event featuring NHL players since the World Cup of Hockey 2016, will be held at Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston from Feb. 12-20. Team USA's first game is against Team Finland in Montreal on Feb. 13 (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS).

"It's just, like, goose bumps," said McAvoy, whose Bruins will face the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS). "Everything around this tournament has brought on a lot of emotions just because I take so much pride in it. These are things you dream of. There's really no other way to explain it."

For McAvoy, this tournament has another layer to it, a layer that has been brought home to him in new ways after the birth of his son, with new feelings, new appreciations for what it could mean for him, for Rhys, for his family.

Kiley is the daughter of Team USA coach Mike Sullivan. Rhys is his second grandchild and first grandson.

"I thought about that, really just how amazing it is," McAvoy said. "Me and my wife, with Rhys, we just brought a son into the world. His dad got to play for his grandpa. How incredible that is and just how rare.

"Really it's something that none of us ever could have dreamed of. There's no crystal ball that would have shown us that. It's just amazing and I know the pride that I've seen in my wife and just how proud she is of her dad and of me and it's just extremely special."

The 4 Nations Face-Off will mark the first time McAvoy will play for Sullivan, who he's known since he and Kiley met in college at Boston University. Sullivan also played hockey for BU before going on to an 11-season NHL career that included a stint with the Bruins (1997-98); he later coached them for two seasons from 2003-06.

The two don't spend a lot of time talking hockey when they're together, Sullivan said, a decision that works for both. He doesn't want to interfere with McAvoy's career, or with the coaches that he has with the Bruins.

But this moment? This moment, when he has full license to coach his son-in-law? That will matter.

"I've thought about it a little bit, I'm not going to lie," Sullivan said. "It's an incredible opportunity, I think, for all of us as a family. … The opportunity to coach him in an event like this is a great thrill for me. He's a great kid, first and foremost. He's a fierce competitor. I know, at some point in our lives, we'll look back on it with a whole lot of gratitude to have the opportunity to work together."

First, though, will be trying to win the tournament.

"Obviously when we get to the tournament, it will be all business," Sullivan said. "We're going to go about it the way we always go about our jobs. He's going to compete on the ice. I'm going to coach the team to the best of my ability.

"But to have the opportunity to coach my son-in-law in an event like this, someday I think we'll look back on it and smile with just having the opportunity to work together like that."

They hadn’t really ever even talked about it. Sullivan has been coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2015-16, before McAvoy made his NHL debut. McAvoy was drafted by the Bruins with the No. 14 pick of the 2016 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut during the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2017 after two seasons at BU and has been a mainstay for Boston ever since.

"It was always like a hypothetical, like what if I ever ended up in Pittsburgh and played for him, and it was sort of a funny thing to talk about," McAvoy said. "But now it'll happen. I'm really excited for it."

The focus, though, is on the prize. It's on winning the 4 Nations.

"Obviously this is our jobs," McAvoy said. "This is a life's amount of work that he's put in, both as a player and a coach, and then this is my life's work as a player. All of that stuff, and the relationship we have and how unique and special that is, I think it only makes this cooler.

"But everything is about winning and the team and what we want to do. Because at the end of the day we're competitors and it just so happens that our relationship is what it is, which is incredible, really."

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McAvoy is brimming with excitement to get in a room with the best the U.S. has to offer, whether in management, coaching or players, to reacquaint himself with those he's met or played with in the past, to meet those he hasn't.

"You'll feel that immense sense of pride and push in the same direction to do something special together," McAvoy said.

And to help lead them.

It's something he's long dreamed about. Now it's here, with the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics on the horizon.

"Between the Stanley Cup, and when you were a kid it was the World Juniors, it was the Olympics," McAvoy said. "Those were everything you dreamed of as a kid and wanted to be a part of and do. This is definitely a step in the direction for that. You're seeing this stuff unfold in front of you, all the stuff you've worked for.

"I couldn't be more excited, and then obviously it's a huge honor to be named one of the leaders, and it goes without saying this team is full of leaders and guys that you want to follow into battle. So we'll all pull on that."

It will help, Sullivan said, that one of the three players in his leadership core is one with whom he's so well-acquainted, someone with whom he's already built confidence, crucial in a short tournament like the 4 Nations.

"I think anytime you have an opportunity to build relationships with people, it helps," Sullivan said. "Because you know them on a deeper level. You know their character. You know what makes them tick. There's certain barriers that you don't have to break down from a trust standpoint that already exist. I think trust is such an important element with respect to a player/coach relationship, and that takes time."

But before McAvoy and Sullivan reconnect in Montreal, there are a few more pressing issues for the defenseman.

He needs to get his diaper changing technique down.

It has been a whirlwind of a first 10 days, even with a registered nurse in the house. Kiley, who went to nursing school, had done a circuit in labor and delivery. Even that didn’t prepare them.

"You think you might know what to expect, but you don't," McAvoy said. "Just the amount of pride and the absolute, utmost respect and love for the moms and what they do. Because it truly is incredible. I've seen that just on a three-day scale, how much they put their bodies through and what they go through. She's doing an incredible job."

They have been surrounded by love, by McAvoy's parents, who are first-time grandparents, and by his sisters, first-time aunts, including Kayla, an assistant sports scientist for the Rangers.

It has been a time of celebration, of recovery, an uplifting time for McAvoy, in a season that has not been easy for him or the Bruins.

The defenseman had come into 2024-25 with a sense of purpose, having spent last summer thinking about it being time for the new leadership core of the Bruins to win, time for them to step out of the shadows and into a new era.

But the season has fallen flat.

Instead of being a shoo-in for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as the Bruins have been in every one of McAvoy's eight seasons in the NHL, they are a question mark. They have been hovering between third in the Atlantic Division and the two wild card spots, sometimes falling out of playoff position entirely.

They currently are tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have played three fewer games, for the second wild from the Eastern Conference.

It is a tenuous spot.

"This year, it's had its trials for sure, more than any other year," said McAvoy, who has 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 48 games and is one point away from becoming the eighth Boston defenseman with at least 300 career points. "You can look at it one of two ways. Like, one, this stinks. We were expecting to be somewhere different. … And everybody that I've talked to, we've had it very good. I have a lot of friends, a lot of people that have never played in the playoffs. A lot of teams that go through it.

"So I've been looking at it in the scope of, this is good for us. Grand scheme, long term, these are things that you go through that make you stronger. You find out more about yourself, more about your group, more about how to lean on each other. Support systems. Because it's not all sunshine and daisies, even though it has been for a couple of years, throughout the regular season. That's the lens I'm taking and I'm looking through is just that all of this will lead to something good in the future."

Only once in McAvoy’s tenure have the Bruins finished out of the top three in the Atlantic Division, when they took the first wild card in 2021-22.

"It's never particularly been close either," McAvoy said. "We kind of know where we stand pretty early on, we run away with it and Presidents' Trophy or, if not, you're comfortable taking rest games at the end of the year.

"Now we're in a fight. You've seen it in years past, what teams can do, what teams can become when they have to play a certain brand of meaningful hockey for the home stretch. That's the way that I'm looking at it."

The hope is that reinforcements are coming. McAvoy returned Jan. 30 after missing seven games because of an upper-body injury, and defenseman Hampus Lindholm, out since Nov. 12 because of a knee injury, is expected to return after the break for 4 Nations.

Once the Bruins return to full strength, McAvoy believes the team will find its stability and embrace its identity, and play to it every night. "No uncertainties, no inconsistencies," he said.

That was on McAvoy's mind as he made sure he was ready to return to the Bruins, to push them through the last three months of the season.

But so too was the 4 Nations Face-Off, and with it the anticipation for the chance to play for his country, to make his mark.

"I'm getting really excited," he said. "The countdown is on."

NHL.com independent correspondent Wes Crosby contributed to this report

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