Saturday 5/4/24
Now's a good time to look at Charlie McAvoy's game a bit more, via his playoff numbers, which show what a non-factor this player is.
I watched McAvoy play in person a number of times when he was at BU, and I thought, "This guy is not as good as everyone is telling me he is." He didn't stand out. He struck me as what I call a shift player--the kind of player who will have this shift every now and again that makes you wish he was like that all of the time. Or some of it, anyway.
But let's look at some playoff numbers. Charlie McAvoy has played in 84 playofff games. He has a total of 46 points and...ready for this...5 goals.
5 goals in what is more than a season's worth of hockey.
He last scored a playoff goal...three years ago.
That was in 2021, when McAvoy had by far his best playoff with 12 points (1 goal, 11 assists) in 11 games.
He had 1 goal and 4 points in 13 games the year before.
The year prior, he had 2 goals and 6 assists in 23 games, when the Bruins lost in the Finals in seven games. A point every three games.
The year before that, he had 1 goal and 4 assists in 12 games, and the year before that, 3 assists and no goals in 6 games.
This is poor. This guy isn't even Charlie Huddy, let alone Ray Bourque.
Now, a McAvoy supporter might want to say, "But what about his defense!"
He's a -1 for his career in the playoffs, which I would argue is hard to do on these Bruins, with their defense-first approach.
This player is an absence, rather than a presence. I think I am the only person aware of this. No one else seems to know. There are other things, too. His turnover last year in Game 7 helped complete the choke. What does this player contribute?
Someone might say he contributes big hits and sets a tone, controls the game, etc. He doesn't. For the most part, there are no big hits in the NHL. Defenseman defend now with positional awareness and consistency, and skating ability. You don't need to be big, you don't need to be that physical. No one is physical. And McAvoy dictates nothing. He doesn't control the play. He's a passenger.
When the Bruins went to the Finals in 2019, they did so despite McAvoy, not because of him.
Is that how it's supposed to work with a stud top defenseman?
Defenseman score in today's wide open NHL. They are supposed to if they're the top defenseman. A defenseman had 100 point last year. You have defenseman over 90 this year. You have defenseman at a point a game. McAvoy, during the regular season, is at about half that.
That single goal in three years stat is amazing. People have gone most of the way through college since Charlie McAvoy last scored a playoff goal.
Here's another way to think about it: Do you know how much better Cale Makar is than Charlie McAvoy? They're not close. Makar controls the game, dictates so much. The gap between them is as big as a top first line star and a fourth line plugger. It's bigger. So how good can you be when your peers are far superior to you? Makar is not the only one, but I mention him because he's a big-time factor and presence. He's a great player. Charlie McAvoy is much closer to being an average NHL player.
