Boston Bruins
“I was actually a little worried because he was so excited. It’s almost like, hopefully he’s not too excited. But the way he played, it was unbelievable.”
Charlie McAvoy scored a goal in his return to the Bruins’ lineup. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
October 14, 2026 | 7:26 AM
3 minutes to read
It didn’t take very long for Charlie McAvoy to find his footing back on the ice for the Bruins.
Making his season debut after serving a six-game suspension to open the 2026-27 campaign, McAvoy was a difference-maker in Boston’s 6-3 win over the Sharks late Tuesday night.
The Bruins’ blueliner logged a team-high 24:41 of ice time — scoring a goal in the first period while also recording three shots on goal, four hits, one blocked shot, and nearly two minutes of ice time on both the power play and penalty kill.
“Incredible,” Marco Sturm said postgame after Boston’s third win in a row. “I was actually a little worried because he was so excited. It’s almost like, hopefully he’s not too excited. But the way he played, it was unbelievable.
“Very calm, in control all the time, making plays, always there at the right spot. We’re just very lucky to have him, and the way he played today was pretty impressive.”
McAvoy’s return stands as a major boost to a Bruins team that already seems to be finding its stride out of the gate this season — with Boston now outscoring opponents 17-5 over this three-game winning streak.
Thirteen Bruins players recorded at least a point in the win over San Jose, with Fraser Minten leading the charge with a two-goal performance.
But it was McAvoy who helped Boston generate a few tallies at the tail end of both the first and second periods of play.
Nearing the first intermission, McAvoy —seeming undeterred after hours spent in a dentist’s chair last season — drove to the net as a skittering puck bounced around the crease near the Sharks net.
McAvoy’s netfront drive was rewarded after JJ Peterka gathered the puck and fed it down low. Before tumbling past Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov, McAvoy tapped Peterka’s offering home for his first tally of the season.
“I thought that was a big-boy shift, and we were trying to hold on to the puck,” McAvoy said of the sequence leading to the goal. “[It’s] something that we talked about before the game … them being a man-on-man team, to just try and break them down and hold onto the puck.
“So it was a good shift, and then that was just a great pass by JJ. So yeah, I was really happy to be on the other side of that and be able to contribute [in my] first game back.”
McAvoy’s restraint later helped the Bruins tack on another tally in the second period, even if his actions didn’t earn him a mark on the scoresheet.
After Boston’s top D-man got tangled up with Sharks phenom Macklin Celebrini, McAvoy didn’t retaliate after the San Jose captain knocked him to the ice — a decision that could have halted play had he dropped the gloves or dragged the fellow Boston University star into an extended scrap.
Instead, McAvoy let the play develop down the other end of the ice — with David Pastrnak stealing a puck in the neutral zone and springing Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha on an odd-man rush.
With three seconds left in the second, Geekie set up Zacha, who wristed a rocket past Askarov in what became Boston’s game-winning goal.
The continued offensive surge from Sturm’s lineup reshuffle — especially from youngsters like Minten — has been a welcome development in the early weeks of a new hockey season.
But the return of McAvoy — a player who impacts nearly every facet of Boston’s game — can’t be overstated for Sturm’s club as the Bruins continue their four-game road trip.
“To start the year 5-2 is great. I was so proud of the guys, and they had some really great games while I was out,” McAvoy said. “You’re already itching, but you’re seeing the group have fun and playing the right way, and it makes it even easier for me to come back and try to join the fray, because you know the guys aren’t struggling.
“They’re feeling good about how they’re playing. So it was good to see that continue tonight.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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