With any luck, Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy will be back in time for the Stanley Cup playoffs

The Boston Bruins revealed on Tuesday that the lower-body injury defenseman Charlie McAvoy suffered against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday will keep him out for at least four weeks.

The news could have been better for the Boston Bruins and defenseman Charlie McAvoy, but it certainly could have been worse.

On Tuesday morning, general manager Don Sweeney revealed that the injury McAvoy sustained against the Montreal Canadiens in Saturday’s home game is a sprained left MCL, and that McAvoy will be re-evaluated in four weeks:

McAvoy appeared to go down with a non-contact injury early in the first period against the Canadiens, but video of the injury revealed that McAvoy tripped over Canadiens right winger Brendan Gallagher’s stick and fell to the ice in obvious pain:

Because his stick made contact with the ice first, rather than McAvoy’s foot, Gallagher wasn’t called for slashing, but it’s clear what cased McAvoy’s injury.

After McAvoy left Saturday’s game, coach Bruce Cassidy went with a top pairing of Zdeno Chara and Brandon Carlo.

Boston is lucky that its blue line is so deep, a rotation featuring Torey Krug, Nick Holden and Kevan Miller. But there’s no question that missing McAvoy for what could end up being the remainder of the regular season will hurt.

As of Tuesday morning, ahead of their matchup with the Detroit Red Wings, the Bruins sit at second place in the Atlantic Division with 88 points. A win over Detroit tonight would make them only the second team in the Eastern Conference with a point total of 90 or more.

At this point, it’s quite unlikely that Boston will be threatened by the Florida Panthers (70 points) or Red Wings (62 points) for one of the Atlantic’s three playoff berths.

But if McAvoy has to miss more time beyond the four weeks, that’s going to be a big problem for Boston as it enters the Stanley Cup playoffs on Apr. 11.

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In his first year in the NHL, McAvoy, a first-round draft pick in 2016, has totaled an incredible  seven goals and 25 assists in 59 game.