BOSTON — Poor play from the get-go was only the second worst thing that happened to the Boston Bruins Thursday night.
Coming out flat and never really climbing out of that malaise, they dropped a 3-1 decision to the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden.
More alarming, however, was that the team’s best defenseman, Charlie McAvoy, who was elbowed in the face on his first shift of the third period by Buffalo’s JJ Peterka, headed down the tunnel into the locker room, and never returned.
Following the game, head coach Jim Montgomery said that his workhorse blueliner had suffered an “upper body injury” and that he didn’t have any updates beyond that. Whether or not he’ll be back for Saturday’s matinee against the Coyotes is uncertain.
Captain Brad Marchand, who was not on the ice at the time McAvoy was struck, said it looked like a “reverse hit” by Peterka that caught McAvoy and left the Bruins with only five defensemen for the rest of the contest while trying to erase a deficit.
“He’s a rock back there. He’s such a dominant player, he does so much on the on the breakout offensively with his physical presence,” Marchand said of McAvoy. “So you lose a guy like him, you can’t replace him.
“Hopefully he’ll be back for you (Friday) and he’ll be feeling better.”
McAvoy, who leads all Boston defensemen in scoring (3 goals, 14 assists) and averages over 24 minutes of ice time a night, played a shade under 16 minutes before exiting Thursday’s game.
Montgomery took blame after the game for his team’s performance, which he described going from “awful to poor”. He felt it stemmed from an equally flat practice the day before.
“We just didn’t have any energy or life to us,” he surmised.
Marchand had the lone Boston goal, coming late in the second period to cut his team’s deficit in half (2-1). But former Northeastern University star Devon Levi was solid from there in the Sabres net, making 28 saves.
Linus Ullmark finished with 33 saves for the Bruins; he stopped all 19 that came his way in a scoreless first period in which his teammates gave up an array of odd-man rushes.
Brandon Bussi was called up from Providence to serve as the Boston backup for the first time this season; Jeremy Swayman was unavailable due to illness.