Charlie McAvoy may already be facing the NHL’s first suspension next season
Charlie McAvoy left Marco Sturm with a mess to answer after the Bruins defender was tossed for a high slash on Zach Benson in Game 6.
The play came late in Buffalo’s win over Boston, and it flipped the conversation away from the score and straight onto league discipline.
Once McAvoy raised his stick, the focus changed fast.
Benson had just scored to put the Sabres ahead by 2 when the temperature jumped again.
That goal gave Buffalo breathing room, and the shift right after it turned ugly in a hurry.
On the next sequence, Benson collided hard with McAvoy along the boards.
McAvoy responded by coming back at him and catching him high with a slash near the neck.
Officials didn’t need much time on it. McAvoy was handed a 5-minute major and an ejection, which only added more heat to an already nasty finish.
That’s why this doesn’t feel like a routine, fine story.
When a stick gets that high, and the player is thrown out on the spot, the league usually takes a long look at it.
The Bruins now wait on the league for the Charlie McAvoy verdict
The bigger issue for Boston is what comes next.
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People around the game are already wondering whether this could lead to a suspension that carries into next season.
That possibility matters because McAvoy isn’t just another body on the blue line.
He’s one of the names tied directly to Boston’s structure, minutes, and matchup work when the pressure rises.
And it puts more attention on Sturm as well.
A coach can live with emotion in a playoff setting, but he can’t love a moment that takes the game out of the players’ hands and into the Department of Player Safety office.
George Parros now sits in the middle of it.
The league can go with a fine, but the nature of the slash and the point of contact make that feel like a soft landing for a play that crossed the line.
For McAvoy, this is about more than one bad decision in one bad moment.
It’s about whether the NHL sees the play as reckless enough to send a message beyond this series.
For the Bruins, the damage is already done.
They lost the game, lost their top defender for the finish, and now they’re stuck waiting to see whether this follows Charlie McAvoy into opening night.
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YESTERDAY
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 | ||||