Charlie McAvoy played a game-high 25:36 for the Bruins on Monday night. He also spent six of those minutes in the penalty box – all three of Boston’s minor penalties in the game were his – including one for something he said to referee Jon McIsaac on his way out of the box.   That last one earned him a public call-out from his own head coach after a 3–2 shootout win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

Penalty No. 1: The Connelly hit (1st period, 15:40 – interference)

Late in the first period, McAvoy and Vegas rookie Trevor Connelly raced toward the Boston end on a puck headed behind Jeremy Swayman’s net. Connelly won the race but was driven hard by McAvoy into the end boards. Connelly needed help getting off the ice, missing the rest of the period. Braeden Bowman immediately went after McAvoy, and the scrum that followed drew in both teams.

The call on the ice: two minutes for interference. 

Connelly never got to the puck, so a check on him isn’t a check on a puck carrier at all: it’s interference (Rule 56). A boarding major (Rule 41) was the louder demand, but here’s the procedural catch – the stripes can only use video review to confirm or reduce a major penalty they’ve already called on the ice, under Rule 20.6.No major penalty call on the ice, no review. 

Penalty No. 2: The hold (2nd period, 14:50 – holding)

With Boston up 2-0 late in the second, McAvoy was called for holding Mitch Marner – a call McAvoy visibly disagreed with, and one his coach didn’t like either. Vegas needed just eight seconds of the ensuing power play for Mark Stone to knock home a loose puck to cut it to 2–1.

Penalty No. 3: Right back in (2nd period, 14:58 – abuse of officials)

McAvoy’s holding minor ended with the goal. As he left the box he had something to say to McIsaac about the call. Whatever it was, it bought him an immediate return trip: a second minor, booked as abuse of officials.

Unsportsmanlike conduct is Rule 75, the general catch-all. Abuse of officials is Rule 39, which deals specifically with conduct directed at the officials: under Rule 39.2, a player who disputes a ruling or directs abusive language or gestures at an official can be assessed a minor penalty. Rule 39 carries heavier options for worse conduct – a misconduct for persisting, and game misconducts for the most serious abuse. On Monday night it was the minor, and Boston killed it off.

McAvoy’s has run-ins with the long arm of the law in the NHL before. He opened this season still serving a six-game suspension handed down by the Department of Player Safety last spring for slashing Buffalo’s Zach Benson in Game 6 of the first round – a two-handed slash in retaliation with 1:31 left in the game, called a major and a game misconduct on the ice and followed by an in-person hearing. He sat out the first six games of 2026-27, making his season debut on October 13 at San Jose. It was the third suspension of his career, after one game in 2019 and four games in 2023.

The Coach’s Call

Marco Sturm was asked postgame about the extra minor — the one that came not from a hit, but from words. His answer was directed at his own alternate captain, not the officials: “That’s something he needs to control. That’s on him. He’s gotta be better than that.”

What McAvoy actually said to McIsaac hasn’t been reported. Whatever it was, it turned a goal against into back-to-back penalty kills with the game tightening up. Boston survived it, killing the abuse-of-officials minor on the way to a 3-2 shootout win. McAvoy finished with a game-high 25:36 of ice time  – and all six of Boston’s penalty minutes.