For Charlie McAvoy, it wasn’t just the results — or lack thereof — for the Bruins over the last few weeks that was testing his patience. Rather, it was the manner in which the Bruins were losing those games that was confounding a locker room searching for answers.
For all of the preseason talk of the 2025-26 Bruins being a team forced to win low-scoring games while relying heavily on a stout defensive unit, much of the opposite has played out over the first month of the campaign. After Boston’s lopsided 7-2 loss to the Senators on Monday, the Bruins ranked 29th in the NHL in goals allowed per game (3.82) and 29th in high-danger scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 play (13.4).
A top defensive pairing of McAvoy and Mason Lohrei also left a lot to be desired in Boston’s own end, with the Bruins outscored 10-7 in their 120 minutes of 5-on-5 reps together. What was once projected to be a strength for Marco Sturm’s team had instead become its more glaring liability.
“I think that was why it was probably the most frustrating when we were going through that pocket [of losses]. We were defending poorly, and that has to be our strength,” McAvoy said. “So we’ve done a much better job the last couple games with that.”
It’s hard to ignore the cause-and-effect that has now played out over the last three games for Boston. In the last three games — all wins for the Bruins — the team’s defensive structure has largely tightened up. As Boston’s defensive fortitude has found its footing, it comes as little surprise that McAvoy has played some of his best hockey of the season.
McAvoy’s best stretch of play has also coincided with skating alongside a new partner: Nikita Zadorov. With that duo now anchoring Boston’s defensive corps, it looks as though Sturm and his staff have a winning combination to lead their defense moving forward.
“They’re playing against the top players every night, and they’re just playing it simple,” Sturm said of the Zadorov-McAvoy pairing. “Sometimes both of them want to do extra and want to do something special because they want to get the guys going. They want to win. They want to do this and that. No, just concentrate on your own game. Shutting those top players down, that’s all I want. And that’s what they are doing right now.”
With a bruising behemoth in Zadorov skating alongside McAvoy, Boston’s top defensive pairing seemingly has the snarl, skating, and skill needed to both negate opposing top lines and land punches down the other end of the ice.
So far this season, the Zadorov-McAvoy pairing has logged 73:24 of 5-on-5 ice time together. Over that stretch, the Bruins have only allowed one 5-on-5 goal — a tally generated by arguably the best line in hockey, Colorado’s Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Necas grouping on October 25.
On Saturday, in what stood as Boston’s best defensive effort of the season against a dynamic Carolina offense, that top pairing once again left their fingerprints all over a hard-fought 2-1 win at TD Garden. The Hurricanes generated just one high-danger scoring chance in the 17:28 of 5-on-5 shifts that the Zadorov-McAvoy pairing logged, with most of their time spent matching up against Carolina’s top line of Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, and Nikolaj Ehlers.
Zadorov has been as advertised next to McAvoy, routinely toppling skaters around the boards and snuffing out scoring chances by using his 6-foot-7, 255-pound frame to his advantage.
“He’s strong, man,” McAvoy said of Zadorov, who doled out a team-high six hits on Saturday against Carolina. “There’s so many times during the game where I’m just like, ‘Wow, it’s just a man’s game.’ He’s able to physically dominate guys, which I think is his superpower, right? He has that size, and he uses it in such a way. It’s trust. I’ve got to be in the right spot for him, and the same for him with me.”
While Zadorov is at his best as the team’s resident battering ram on the blue line, his bruising approach and solid play in the defensive zone has allowed McAvoy to flourish offensively. As Zadorov locks things down around goalie Jeremy Swayman, McAvoy pushes the pace and has been assertive with the puck — assisting on both of Boston’s goals from Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson in the 2-1 victory.
Having a steady defensive partner in Zadorov could give McAvoy the runway to be more aggressive offensively when the situation arises. But McAvoy, who also flattened Bradly Nadeau with a bone-crunching check following an attempted “Michigan” goal, stressed that he can perform the same defensive role when needed for Zadorov.
“I think the unique thing with our corps is everybody can do that,” McAvoy said of Boston’s offensive upside from the blue line. “You guys have seen it sometimes when Z gets space — we call him ‘Bobby’ for a reason. So it’s the same thing. It goes both ways. If I’m able to make a play, I want him to go, and he does the same thing with me. All of our defensemen, everybody back there, has the ability to go when we’re clean and your partner’s covering.”
Slotting Zadorov next to McAvoy is not the sole reason for Boston’s defensive rebound, especially in Saturday’s win where a Carolina team leading the league in goals per game (3.90) was limited to one tally and their second-lowest shot total (29) of the year.
The return of Hampus Lindholm to Boston’s lineup has provided a calming presence in the defensive zone, with Boston now 5-1-0 on the season when the veteran is in the lineup. Meanwhile, Mason Lohrei awaits another chance to return, and rookie Jonathan Aspirot has been a steady, stay-at-home presence on the third defensive pairing, with opponents scoring just one 5-on-5 goal during his 42:19 of 5-on-5 ice time.
Put it all together, and a Bruins defense that was prone to unraveling through the first month might finally be showing signs of cohesion — and not a moment too soon for Sturm and his staff.
“We needed to play that way against a team like that,” Sturm said. “We wanted to have a good start. We wanted to kind of slow them down, especially in the first. Today was probably one of the best games we played, structure-wise, for 60 minutes.”
https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-bruins/2025/11/01/bruins-boston-charlie-mcavoy-nikita-zadorov-nhl-hockey-defense-hurricanes/
