Jeremy Swayman Shares Message For Charlie McAvoy After Scary Injury

The highly anticipated 4 Nations Face-Off championship bout between Team USA and Canada isn’t the only thing on the mind of Jeremy Swayman.

The netminder is also concerned about the health of his U.S. and Boston Bruins teammate Charlie McAvoy.

McAvoy won’t play Thursday against Canada after he suffered a “significant” injury to the AC joint in his right shoulder and also dealt with an infection in the area, which caused the Bruins defenseman to be hospitalized.

Swayman made sure to reach out to McAvoy and let it be known that whether it’s Team USA or the Bruins, they are all pulling for McAvoy to get better.

“I texted him, but obviously he’s in the OR (operating room), and you don’t wanna be — I can only imagine his phone is pretty swarmed,” Swayman told reporters Wednesday, per team-provided video. “Just wanna give him space on the matter of getting healed up and just know he’s got an entire team, an entire family in his corner. That’s all he needs to know. The rest will take care of itself.”

McAvoy’s scary injury, which the Bruins revealed he sustained in the first 4 Nations game against Finland, had Brad Marchand checking in on McAvoy, too. Marchand and McAvoy have a close relationship and the Bruins captain wasn’t going to let being on the opposite of McAvoy in the tournament get in the way of contacting his teammate.

“I reached out to him. I’m obviously going to keep everything personal,” Marchand told reporters, per WEEI’s Tom Carroll. “First are foremost, all you care about is the guy’s health. Very happy to hear that he’s doing well. But you put hockey aside in these moments. I had no intention of talking to Chuck or Pasta or any of my teammates until this tournament was over, but obviously in a situation like that — Chucky’s one of my best friends and I care a lot about him.”

McAvoy is just one of a few Team USA players banged up heading into the monumental rematch with Canada. Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk returned to practice Wednesday while Brady Tkachuk was held out of the session, but is expected to play.

Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco told reporters he doesn’t have a timetable for McAvoy’s return, but doesn’t believe he’ll be back in the “short-term.”