Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was hit in the face by a puck in the second period and was ruled out of Saturday's 3-2 victory against the host Montreal Canadiens.
Montreal defenseman Noah Dobson took a slap shot at 11:01, which may have deflected off of the Bruins' Mark Kastelic or another player's stick before catching McAvoy under his visor and to his face.
McAvoy went down on the ice and eventually left under his own power to the Bruins' locker room as Bell Centre staff cleaned blood off
the ice. The Bruins said in the third period that McAvoy would not return.
"He's doing OK, he's just getting some testing done," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said after the game. "We're going to try to get him home as soon as possible, hopefully tonight with us. But other than that, hopefully, he's going to be OK."
McAvoy, 27, blocked three shots and took a slashing penalty in 13:03 on the ice on Saturday. He entered the day with 14 points (all on assists), 24 penalty minutes, 29 blocks, 25 hits and 24:20 average ice time in 18 games.
Boston had to deal with another injury when forward Viktor Arvidsson, who scored his 200th career goal in the second period, left with 5:12 remaining in the third period because of a lower-body injury.
"He's going to be out, lower body," Sturm said. "I don't know how long. I suppose we're going to have to wait and see."
Boston selected McAvoy 14th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft.
He has 314 career points (60 goals, 254 assists), 453 penalty minutes, 912 blocks and 933 hits while averaging 23:27 on the ice in 522 regular-season games since the 2017-18 season.
McAvoy played in only 50 games last season. He injured his shoulder at the Bell Centre while playing for Team USA in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off.
--Field Level Media
