The Bruins need Charlie McAvoy to play drastically better to beat the Panthers

The Bruins need Charlie McAvoy to play drastically better to beat the Panthers originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

Charlie McAvoy was one of the 10 best defensemen in the NHL for the last two yearsbut he hasn’t played anywhere near that level for the Boston Bruins in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs thus far.

And if the Bruins are going to eliminate the Panthers and reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2019, they need their No. 1 defenseman play like a $9.5 million player almost every game.

McAvoy is a workhorse for the Bruins. He plays in all situations and leads the team with 25:40 of ice time per game (3:23 more than any teammate), which also ranks 6th among all players in the 2024 playoffs. McAvoy to make an extremely positive impact in all three zones, but we have yet to see him do that consistently in recent weeks.

In fact, the Bruins were largely outplayed during McAvoy’s 191:29 of even-strength minutes in nine playoff games.

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McAvoy was less than stellar, to say the least, during the Bruins’ 6-1 loss in Game 2 of their second-round series against the Panthers on Wednesday night.

He played 13:52 at 5-on-5, and the Panthers had a 16-4 advantage in shot attempts, a 6-2 advantage in shots on net, a 7-1 advantage in scoring chances, and a 2-1 goals in those minutes. The opponent shouldn’t dominate at that level when their best defenseman is on the ice.

McAvoy failed to clear the puck along the boards in the defensive zone before the Panthers’ second goal. He lost his stick in the process, which made it difficult to stop Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov from scoring the goal in front of the net.

Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman was unable to locate the puck on the Panthers’ third goal with 0.3 seconds left in the second period because McAvoy (and Brad Marchand) scouted it. If McAvoy is going to occupy that ice right in front of his goalie, he needs to block the shot.

The Bruins were also sloppy early in the third quarter. The Panthers’ first shot came off a McAvoy turnover. He threw the puck to the middle of the ice and Anton Lundell intercepted it, skated toward Swayman and fired a shot. It didn’t result in a goal, but the Panthers increased their lead to 4-1 shortly after that sequence.

McAvoy turned the puck over three times in Game 2. He was credited with 16 giveaways in nine playoff games, five more than any other player in the league after Wednesday’s action.

Puck handling is generally a strong point of McAvoy’s skill set. He is a skilled skater and a talented playmaker. He begins the transition to the ice with a good first pass out of his own zone. But for some reason, he doesn’t seem very confident with the puck on his stick this postseason, and that’s hurting the Bruins.

McAvoy also had some difficult moments in the Bruins’ first-round victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. He did a terrible job defending Auston Matthews on Leafs star winning goal in the third period of game 2.

He also had some shaky moments with the puck in that series, including a turnover in the first period of Game 7 that could have resulted in a Leafs goal. It was one of three giveaways for McAvoy in Game 7.

It’s not just McAvoy’s defense and puck-handling that have been dismal in the playoffs. He also isn’t creating much offense. The Bruins need more points from their blue line, especially when you consider the poor production of their top six forwards over the last five games.

McAvoy hasn’t scored a goal in the playoffs since Game 1 of the Bruins’ second-round series against the New York Islanders in 2021. That’s a 27-game postseason scoring drought. The 26-year-old defenseman hasn’t scored a single point in his last five games, and just one of his four points (all assists) in the 2024 playoffs has been at 5-on-5.

The Bruins haven’t scored a power play goal since Game 4 of the first round. They are 0-for-9 with the man advantage in their last five games. McAvoy played 9:15 on the power play during that span, and the Bruins recorded just two shots and three scoring chances in those minutes. If the Bruins’ power play is to be a weapon again, McAvoy is one of the players who must lead the offense to revive it.

McAvoy is a pillar of the franchise and it’s important not to let recency bias cloud our view of his immense talent. But he also had some very bad moments in this playoff phase and, overall, he didn’t live up to expectations. Maybe he’s battling an injury, but if he’s healthy enough to be in the lineup, he’s going to need to play a lot better.

The Bruins should be confident that McAvoy will play better on offense. But it needs to happen fast, or this series could start to slip away from them.