Charlie McAvoy continues to take a beating (and deliver) for Bruins

Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy is running out of teeth to lose.

Already playing with a slight lisp thanks to a puck that shattered his jaw and the left side of his mouth back in November, McAvoy took yet another lump Tuesday night against the Kings. This time around, it appeared that his front teeth were chipped, though the damage likely went beyond just that.

And able to take just two questions from the media — and spitting blood all the while — McAvoy was painfully honest about this current run on his mouth.

"I wish the hits would stop coming, honestly," McAvoy, who scored the overtime goal in the win, admitted. "It's tiring. My mouth honestly can't even feel worse, but I'll get some work [done]. We got a really good dentist here who's great.

"I just need to get some rest and be better for Thursday."

McAvoy sounded like a simply broken man. Since returning to play, McAvoy has had plenty of close calls. An elbow to the face from the Panthers' Sandis Vilmanis puffed McAvoys' face back out for the Olympics, and since ditching the bubble, McAvoy has taken a puck to the face and then had last night's run in with the boards, which messed his mouth up some more.

Yet, despite the worsened lisp, more blood, and another emergency trip to the dentist, McAvoy has remained a driving force for the Bruins' success, and came through in a key spot once again with that overtime dagger.

“I thought [McAvoy] wouldn’t come back,” Bruins head coach Marco Sturm revealed following the win. “He’s not getting prettier, that’s for sure. He’s a competitor and he knew he probably wasn’t his best, but he played a very good third period and scored a beauty of a goal in OT."

Since returning to the lineup on Dec. 11, McAvoy has posted seven goals and 32 points in 33 games played. His 32 points are the eighth-most among all NHL defensemen over that span, while the Bruins have captured 42 of a possible 66 points (that .636 point percentage is the ninth-best in the NHL over that span).

And has helped set the tone that Sturm wants in his room.

“The guy next to him, he’s going to look over [at McAvoy], and is he going to battle or not? If you sit across from room and you’re a young guy, to see that, I don’t want to be the guy who’s going to quit," Sturm noted. "So, those are the guys you need in the locker room and he’s a good example.” 

Here are some other thoughts, notes, and takeaways from a 2-1 win over the Kings at TD Garden on Tuesday night...

The Bruins got some absolutely fantastic goaltending out of backup Joonas Korpisalo for a few months. But after back-to-back duds from Korpisalo, and with Jeremy Swayman surging, it may be time for the Black and Gold to give Swayman a mini-run of sorts as Boston's uninterrupted starter.

Now, the schedule does help the Bruins with this idea. Including Tuesday’s win over the Kings, the Bruins are currently in the midst of a stretch that’ll feature eight games in the next 16 days, and just one back-to-back over that span. Of course, if we expand that to the 17 days, it bumps up to nine games, but follow me here. In addition to a 'lightened' workload by March in the NHL standards, the Bruins are also done traveling outside of their local time zone for the remainder of the season. In other words, this may be the perfect time to dig in on Swayman for let's say six of the current eight-game spell. It also may be necessary given the tightness of the East playoff race and how every loss and missed point seems to have a way of coming back to maybe bite the Bruins.

There's also the fact that Swayman is dialed in right now.

In four games since the conclusion of the Olympic break, Swayman has posted a 3-1-0 record and a .944 save percentage. He's also three straight outings where he's allowed just one goal, and in his lone loss of that four-game sample, the Bruins gave him a mere single goal of run support. Looking under the hood beyond the raw data of this recent spell, Swayman has also posted a .909 high-danger save percentage at all-situation play, which is fifth-best among a group of 48 qualified goaltenders. Swayman’s also posted a 4.22 goals saved above average, which is fourth-best among that group of 48 goalies.

And above all else, Swayman is not leaking at the worst possible moments.

“He’s been there at the key moments, and that’s what I love about him," Sturm said following Tuesday's win. "Very happy with his performance all year long.”

- Barring an unexpected Bruins-Kings showdown in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, Tuesday night at the Garden marked Anze Kopitar's final trip to Boston. Kopitar, who will retire at the end of the season, was an absolute delight to watch for years. Quiet and unassuming, but a complete three-zone monster, Kopitar and his Kings were the closest threat the Blackhawks had to their dynasty. And even then and with two Cups, I still think flew under the radar of most.

- I think if you're playing a game of Who Would You Rather when it comes to the Bruins' potential first-round opponent should they make the playoffs, I think you have to look at teams that have defensive groupings that the Bruins could wear down over the course of a seven-game series. That fourth line of Jeannot-Kuraly-Kastelic has been downright menacing against defensive groupings this year, so the idea of throwing them against a less physical defense should make the B's eyes light up. (It's not too dissimilar from how the Panthers epically disrupted the Bruins during their 2023 first-round series.)

- Don't look now, but the Bruins have been able to bump their penalty-killing percentage up from 76.5 percent at the break to 77.5 percent now. I know, I know, that doesn't seem like much of a bump, but the Bruins have successfully killed off all but two of their 19 trips to the box since the break. That 89.5 percent success rate is second-best in the NHL. The Bruins have also cut down on the amount of chances they're surrendering when down a man.