When the NHL dropped the hammer on Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy this week, it sent a clear message: stick-swinging has no place in the game. McAvoy has been suspended for the first six games of the 2025-26 season following a violent slash on Buffalo Sabres forward Zach Benson during Game 6 of their first-round playoff series.
The incident occurred with less than 90 seconds remaining in what turned out to be the Bruins' season-ending loss. McAvoy was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct on the ice, but the league's Department of Player Safety decided that wasn't enough. The supplemental discipline means the 27-year-old defenseman will miss roughly seven percent of next season before he can even lace up his skates.
Let's be real here—regardless of which team you root for, there's no defending the play. You simply cannot swing your stick at an opponent like a lumberjack. Yes, Benson likely deserved a penalty himself for slew-footing McAvoy moments earlier, but two wrongs don't make a right in the NHL rulebook. The proper response is to let the officials handle it, not to retaliate with a dangerous chop.
From a Bruins fan's perspective, the real frustration lies in the league's seemingly arbitrary suspension math. Consider this: when Alex Pietrangelo of the Vegas Golden Knights delivered a similar slash in a nearly identical situation—same scoreline, same late-game pressure—he received just a one-game playoff suspension. One playoff game equals six regular-season games at the NHL Currency Exchange, apparently. Make it make sense.
It's a fool's errand to try to decode how George Parros and the Department of Player Safety arrive at their conclusions. The process has always felt a bit like reading tea leaves. Still, it's hard to feel too sympathetic when the suspension was clearly warranted. McAvoy has been here before, with two prior suspensions for hits to the head—one on Josh Anderson in the 2019 playoffs and another on Oliver Ekman-Larsson during the 2023-24 regular season.
The silver lining? There was already going to be plenty of bad blood when the Bruins and Sabres meet next season. Now, with McAvoy sidelined for the first six games, that opening matchup just got a whole lot more interesting. For fans, it's a reminder that in today's NHL, keeping your cool—and your stick on the ice—is just as important as any highlight-reel goal.