The momentum was all over the place Monday night.
But one of the biggest shifts was when Charlie McAvoy threw himself into Jordan Staal.
The B’s entered the third period of Game 4 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series with the Carolina Hurricanes down 2-0. But one of the catalysts to the Bruins scoring four unanswered goals to ultimately earn a 4-3 victory to take a 3-1 series lead was McAvoy stepping into the Hurricanes captain.
Staal is four inches bigger and 12 pounds heavier than McAvoy, so the Bruins defenseman was punching above his weight a little bit. And when asked about the collision, Bruins winger Jake DeBrusk had a great reaction.
“He’s got a lot of meat over there,” DeBrusk said in his postgame press conference.
“I didn’t actually see the hit live, but like you said, the reaction of the bench,” the winger then continued. “Anytime – it’s so weird without fans, to be honest with you. Anytime there’s a big play or a good scoring chance, the only way you know is by the bench reaction. Obviously, it was a big hit and it was a good moment for us. That’s when we’re coming hard.”
DeBrusk wasn’t the only one praising McAvoy’s hit, either. Bruce Cassidy was a big fan, as well.
