The 4 Nations Face-Off has produced some thrilling, high-stakes hockey that will culminate in a must-watch championship game between fierce rivals the United States and Canada at TD Garden on Thursday night.
It has also produced a potential nightmare scenario for the Boston Bruins.
Bruins defenseman and Team USA star Charlie McAvoy is considered week-to-week after suffering an injury to the AC joint in his right shoulder in the Americans' game against Finland on Feb. 13. McAvoy ended up playing through the injury last Saturday in Team USA's first clash with Canada in Montreal, but developed an infection in his right shoulder that required him to be transported to Massachusetts General Hospital on Monday night.
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On Wednesday morning, the Bruins put out a statement noting that their own medical staff evaluated McAvoy upon Team USA's return to Boston on Monday and discovered the infection as well as a "significant" injury to his AC joint.
While it seemed odd that the Bruins would release such a detailed statement on McAvoy -- and not Team USA, which technically is responsible for McAvoy during the tournament -- Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman believes the statement was intended to send a message.
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“I think the people who are the angriest is the team, the Bruins,” Friedman said on the Sportsnet's 590 The Fan on Wednesday night. “If you read their statement today, they make it very clear that they are unhappy with how this all went down, that they don’t feel that their player was given the proper treatment.
"It seems now that McAvoy was originally injured in the opener against Finland. There’s a play where Joel Armia takes him hard into the post. I don’t know if he got a (painkiller) shot or something. I don’t know exactly what happened, but he played Saturday, it looks like, with much more severe an injury than he was initially led to believe, and everybody was initially led to believe, which makes his performance all that more impressive."
Friedman added that McAvoy was "in a bit more pain" Monday when Team USA returned to Boston, and when he was taken to the hospital, the Bruins' medical staff "realized the injury was more severe than believed or initially diagnosed."
After the Bruins said as much in their statement Wednesday, their displeasure with how McAvoy's injury was handled became clear, said Friedman.
“I remember yesterday when it was the Bruins and not Team USA that announced that McAvoy was out (versus Sweden), there were people saying, ‘How come the Bruins, whose GM (Don Sweeney) is the GM of Team Canada, are announcing that Charlie McAvoy wouldn’t play?’
"And then it became pretty clear that it’s because the Bruins were extremely unhappy with the way this had been handled, and that they felt that in this particular case, McAvoy didn’t get the proper care."
Team USA -- whose general manager is Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin -- is using the Wild's medical staff for this tournament. And as 98.5 The Sports Hub's Ty Anderson pointed out, the Bruins have a history with Minnesota's medical team stemming from a disagreement over the health of Patrick Maroon after Boston acquired him from the Wild at least year's trade deadline.
In summary: This is a complicated situation that seemingly pits the Bruins against the medical staff of Team USA/the Wild. And as long as Boston's best defenseman remains sidelined for a team that's fighting for a playoff berth, the controversy likely won't go away.