Boston’s Charlie McAvoy faces in-person hearing for slash of Sabres’ Zach Benson
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced Saturday that Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy has been offered an in-person hearing for slashing Buffalo’s Zach Benson in the final minutes of Game 6.
The Buffalo Sabres ended the Boston Bruins’ stay in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Sabres’ 4-1 win in Game 6 on Saturday at TD Garden in Boston will now postpone the start of Charlie McAvoy’s 2026-27 season.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced Saturday afternoon that McAvoy, a defenseman for the Bruins, has been offered an in-person hearing for slashing Buffalo’s Zach Benson in the final minutes of Game 6, the final game of the first-round series between the two teams.
The date and the time of the hearing for McAvoy are to be determined. A player who faces an in-person hearing is subject to a minimum suspension of six games. That suspension would start at the beginning of next season.
If McAvoy turns down the in-person hearing, he will instead have a phone hearing.
Buffalo Sabres center Peyton Krebs (19) gets tied up with defenseman Charlie McAvoy (72) of the Boston Bruins during the second period
of Game Six of the First Round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden on Friday, May 1, 2026. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)
“I won’t play another game until September,” McAvoy told reporters in Boston after Game 6. “I can’t imagine it really matters much.”
McAvoy’s slash of Benson came with less than two minutes left in the third period, after Benson took McAvoy into the end boards by clipping McAvoy's right leg with his left leg, causing him to fall, off-balance, as the two chased the puck.
Benson skated away from the play, and McAvoy retaliated by taking a woodchopper’s swing with his stick at Benson with 1:31 left in the game, even as an official attempted to keep the two separated.
“You don’t want to see the last play of the game, you don’t want to see a guy take a chop like that, at somebody else,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. “I haven’t looked at the play. I think he feels Benson tripped him on the play or took his feet out from under him.”
McAvoy took a five-minute major for slashing, which also resulted in an ejection from the game. Benson was called for tripping on the play, a slew foot that sent McAvoy into the end boards, but the NHL’s Department of Player Safety did not announce any immediate supplemental discipline for the Sabres' left wing as of Saturday afternoon.
McAvoy is the second player from the Bruins to face discipline from the NHL related to actions in the six-game series against the Sabres.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced April 27 that it fined Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov $5,000 for cross-checking Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin at center ice inside the final four minutes of the Sabres’ 6-1 win against the Bruins in Game 4 at TD Garden.
The cross-check came after Zadorov and Dahlin exchanged words, sparked a melee between the two teams, and resulted in several penalties, including a five-minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct called against Zadorov.
The Sabres beat the Bruins in the best-of-seven series, 4-2. The Sabres will face the winner of the Montreal-Tampa Bay series, which is tied at 3-3; Game 7 of that first-round series is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa.