Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy has been out injured. There are questions as to how the Team USA training staff handled the situation, but it’s been over a month since Boston’s top defenseman has played in any hockey game.

He had been practicing and skating on his own at Warrior Ice Arena before some Bruins practices, but there has been no timetable for his return. On Tuesday afternoon in Southern California, McAvoy was part of the Black and Gold’s practice at Anaheim ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Ducks, wearing a red non-contact jersey. In the overall big picture, there is no need for Boston to play McAvoy in a game this year. Joe Sacco said after practice that he won’t play on the trip. Oh good.

Falling out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference, there is no reason for the Bruins under any circumstances as to where McAvoy should take one shift again this year. It’s time to shut him down nd have him healthy and ready for training camp in September.

Bruins sign prospect Jake Schmaltz

The Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL) signed prospect Jake Schmaltz to a one-year contract for the 2025-26 season and he will play the rest of this season with the P-Bruins on an Amateur Tryout.

Selected in the seventh round of the 2019 Entry Draft, Schmaltz finished his fourth season at North Dakota and played in 147 games with 20 goals and 43 assists. He is another prospect that will add depth for Providence for the rest of this season and next.

Former Bruins trade target Jakub Chychrun signs long-term deal with Capitals

There have been multiple trade deadlines where the Bruins were linked to defenseman Jakob Chychryn when he was with the Arizona Coyotes and the Ottawa Senators. Last June, after the Bruins traded with Ottawa, sending goalie Linus Ullmark there, the Senators sent Chychrun to the Washington Capitals.

On Tuesday, the Caps locked him up with an eight-year contract that carries a $9 million AAV. If Bruins general manager Don Sweeney had any visions to getting Chychrun in the future, that was squashed by his new deal.

Boston College hockey has Gaudreaus, Voce close to hearts

NEWTON, Massachusetts — There is a prayer board in the Boston College Eagles’ hockey dressing room. Before this season, three names were written on it and remain there.

Tony Voce

Johnny Gaudreau

Matthew Gaudreau

Around the turn of the 21st century, Voce was a high-scoring Eagles forward and twice the team MVP. Last summer, he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 43.

Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau also died last summer, a few weeks after Voce. Johnny was 31, two years older than Matthew. Both had been stars on the ice at Boston College — and they died as they had lived so much of their lives.

Together.

They were killed riding their bikes on a country road in southern New Jersey, by a man who was allegedly driving under the influence. According to witnesses, the accused was driving aggressively, trying to get around another vehicle, and struck the Gaudreaus. That weekend, Johnny and Matthew were celebrating their sister’s wedding. Their wives were both pregnant.

When the news broke that Johnny — one of the NHL’s most electric players, a seven-time all-star with Calgary and Columbus — and Matthew — who had become a coach — had both been killed, the hockey universe reeled. People all over the world who knew nothing about hockey were saddened and dismayed. An unfathomable loss. Two young, athletic men, with decades of life ahead of them. Their wives made widows. Their children — the two already born and the two on the way — made fatherless. Their parents and sisters devastated.

On Chestnut Hill, too, the pain was acute and has remained so. The brothers had been instrumental figures in one of college hockey’s most successful programs. At Boston College, they left their marks — and their sudden loss has challenged the living to make sense of the tragedy.

Jerry York, the Eagles’ head coach from 1994 to 2022, said, “Some things are just unexplainable. I mean, you can look at why this, why that, but they’re just unexplainable.”

York won five national titles as a head coach, four at BC, his alma mater. The latest one might have been the most memorable, thanks in large part to the goal that freshman Johnny Gaudreau scored, clinching the championship game against Ferris State in 2012.

York still lights up thinking about it.

“I’m on the bench, it’s late in the game, we’re protecting a one-goal lead and the national championship is right there for us and I’m saying, ‘All right, Johnny, dump it and get off,'” York recalled. “You know, it’s two minutes left in the game and from the coach’s viewpoint the best play was to get it deep and change. And he just holds on to the puck, goes right [through] two or three players and puts it on the top shelf. I said, ‘Oh, Johnny, good play.'”

In fact, that goal is widely considered one of college hockey’s all-time highlights.

Unlike his brother, Matthew Gaudreau wasn’t an instant sensation at BC. Size was a factor. Johnny was slight — about 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds in college, but Matthew was even smaller — about the same height and, York said, only around 110 pounds as a freshman (he was listed as 135 on the team roster). His toughness, though, was off the charts.

“Just his ability to get up after some of the most vicious, bone-rattling hits I’ve ever seen in hockey, and get up and play, and that happened a number of times over his career, and he’s just a tough, hard-nosed kid,” York said.