‘It cost me my sanity.’ Boston Bruins star still battling Team USA injury nightmare (2025)

BOSTON — The warring emotions were painted on Charlie McAvoy’s face.

“Mentally, emotionally, physically, I’ve gone through so much because of that damn experience,” McAvoy said at Warrior Arena on Thursday.

The Bruins defenseman from Long Island lived out a childhood dream in February, representing the United States on a massive international stage. But what followed was nightmarish. McAvoy suffered a season-ending shoulder injury that led to an infection in the NHL 4 Nations Face-off.

“It cost me my season. It cost me my sanity in a lot of ways,” McAvoy said. “None of this has been easy. I get emotional when I talk about it. It was an incredible experience and I waited my whole life to be a part of something like that. But the way that it ended, and the aftermath of it and what I had to go through, it cost me a lot more than I was willing to give, and that’s unfortunate.

“Now I can finally put it to bed and after we talk about it, I don’t want to talk about it ever again honestly, because it did cost me a lot.”

After injuring his shoulder in Team USA’s opening game, McAvoy was given an injection to numb the pain for a highly-anticipated matchup with Canada in Montreal. Pain-killing injections are commonplace in the NHL, but McAvoy’s reaction was not.

Two nights after the win over Canada, McAvoy still couldn’t sleep, and in addition to symptoms of a shoulder injury, the defenseman developed red streaks across it chest. It was then that he was taken to MassGeneral Hospital and diagnosed with a rare staph infection. For months, McAvoy wrestled with the cause of it, before coming to grips with the idea that he’ll never know.

“There’s no dirty needles,” McAvoy said. “It could have been my Under Armour that was dirty, or my gear, or this or that, or a pillow at the hotel. It could have been anything. So that’s why there’s no ill will with anybody involved. And guess what? We can sit here and talk about it, and the head of infectious diseases at MassGeneral doesn’t know how it happened. So we could speculate all day — and trust me, I have... the reality is, there’s no one to blame.

“What happened to me was simply bad luck,” McAvoy said. “There’s always a risk of that happening, but you don’t ever hear about it — and it happened to me.”

When McAvoy awoke from a procedure at MassGeneral, doctors told him they’d also found a Grade 5 AC joint separation in his shoulder, and fixed that while they were in there. As a result, the 27-year-old missed Boston’s final three months of the season. McAvoy was forced to be a spectator as the Bruins traded some of their best players and free-fell to a last-place finish.

“It’s disheartening in every way,” McAvoy said. “You’re watching your friends, your teammates struggle. You’re trying to be there to help with that. You can’t. So many things this year were just unfortunate. So there’s frustration. There’s certainly motivation to never be here (in last place) again. To find ways for us to improve this culture. To get back to what it looks like because this isn’t a good place to be right now.”

Next winter in Italy, NHL players will be allowed to compete in the 2026 Olympics for the first time in over a decade. After all he’s gone through, it’s fair to wonder if the 4 Nations fallout has soured McAvoy on playing internationally in the midst of a season with the Bruins.

“Absolutely not,” McAvoy said.

When Team USA takes the ice in Milan, expect to see him on the blue line, 4 Nations Face-Off injury be damned.

“That is my dream of dreams to play for an Olympics,” McAvoy said. “The guys were incredible. The staff was incredible. Every part of that 4 Nations was a dream come true. There’s a reason I why played in that (Canada) game, because I’m not missing this game I’ve dreamt of my whole life. It’s the aftermath of that, it cost me my year. There’s a lot of — I don’t want to say regret — just an acceptance of what happened. It sucks and I’m still coming to grips with it, but I wouldn’t trade it.”