Charlie McAvoy snapped and violently attacked Zach Benson
The Bruins are out. Buffalo finished the job Friday night, and Charlie McAvoy spent the back half of his season-ending loss watching from the box.
McAvoy went after Zach Benson with his stick after the Sabres forward drove him hard into the boards.
The officials handed Boston's top defenseman a five-minute major.
Marco Sturm's club lost the series. The major came at the worst possible moment, with Boston trailing 3-2 in the series and the season hanging on every shift.
McAvoy is the engine of that blue line. He logs the heaviest minutes and posted 11 goals, 50 assists, and a +13 rating across 69 regular-season games at a $9.5 million cap hit.
His playoff line never matched the regular season.
Through the first five games, the 28-year-old sat at 0 goals, 2 assists, and a -3 rating, and Game 6 ended with his stick getting him kicked out.
Five minutes is a long time to hand an opponent in an elimination game. Boston's penalty kill needed to be perfect. It wasn't.
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What McAvoy's major means for the league office
The five-minute call is in the books.
Now the Department of Player Safety has the weekend to decide whether the hack also earns a fine or a suspension that carries into next season.
McAvoy has a clean record. The 28-year-old isn't a repeat offender, and that history usually softens supplemental discipline when the league reviews the tape.
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Zach Benson is the player on the other end of this story.
The 20-year-old put up 13 goals and 30 assists in 65 games on a $950,000 cap hit, with a +27 rating that quietly made him one of Buffalo's most valuable forwards by dollar.
Lindy Ruff just watched his rookie wear a slash from a star defenseman and respond with a series-clinching effort from his teammates.
This is where Boston's offseason starts. Sturm took over last June, and his first playoff run ended with his most important player swinging a stick in frustration.
Buffalo finished the regular season at 50-23-9 for 109 points, fourth overall. Boston came in at 45-27-10 and 100 points.
The gap was real, and it showed up exactly when it had to.
Don Sweeney has work to do.
A first-round exit with this cap structure does not buy patience, and McAvoy's last shift will sit in everyone's notebook all summer.
The Sabres move on. Boston goes home wondering whether one swing of the lumber tells the whole story, or whether the bigger problem was the four games before it.
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LIVE
MAY 1, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Gage Goncalves | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | 1 | - | 1 | |
| David Pastrnak | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Smith | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kailer Yamamoto | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Hagel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Noah Hanifin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Dominic James | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaedan Korczak | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||