Charlie McAvoy could be in line for a call from the NHL Department of Player Safety after a hit on Bobby Brink in the Wild's 6-2 win over the Bruins tonight.
It was a chaotic sequence in Boston. Danila Yurov and Brink were both hammered along the boards, and Brink answered by dropping the gloves with McAvoy.
The way McAvoy finished the hit is what will draw attention. He appeared to go for the head, with his hands and arms up in the face of the Wild winger as he made contact.
Brink is listed at 5'8 and 170 pounds. McAvoy is 6'1 and 210, so the size gap was obvious before anyone threw a punch. That Brink fought him anyway tells you how he felt about the hit.
Brink was already in the news this week. We told you about Brink's stick-breaking frustration in Toronto after a missed 3-on-1 on Thursday, and he was clearly still fired up two nights later.
Yurov was part of the same wave of contact, and the Wild answered it the right way, on the scoreboard. Minnesota came into Boston after a 5-2 win in Toronto and left with another lopsided result.
Will the NHL suspend Charlie McAvoy?
Nothing official has come from the league, and the Bruins haven't addressed it. But a hit with the hands and arms finishing up high on a smaller player is exactly the type of play Player Safety reviews.
McAvoy has 14 penalty minutes in 13 games this season. He is not a repeat offender by that number, but the league doesn't need a long history to act when a head is the principal point of contact.
We think this one deserves a hearing. The fight doesn't erase the hit, and Brink was the one who had to settle it with his fists after taking contact to the face.
For Boston, the stakes are real. The Bruins were coming off a 5-2 loss to Montreal on Thursday, and losing a defenseman who plays this much would hurt with Los Angeles visiting Tuesday.
Minnesota hosts Nashville the same night. Whether McAvoy suits up for the Bruins on Tuesday depends on what the league decides in the next few days.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
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