Bruins notebook: Charlie McAvoy working his way back to 100 percent

Charlie McAvoy was set to play his third game back – and first game at the Garden – on Tuesday as the Bruins faced the Utah Mammoth.

While he’s looked no worse for the wear after suffering a broken jaw on November 15, an injury that required surgery to fix and has him still on a limited diet, he said he’s still adjusting to the bubble that he’s wearing on his head which consists of a full shield and football-like jaw protector.

“I still feel like I’m getting used to it with some of the peripherals, like when look down and you’ve got the holes there, sometimes you get a little lost when you’re looking down like that. But I’m trying to just get comfortable with that. But it’s it hasn’t hindered me much,” said McAvoy after the B’s morning skate.

He said dealing with it was much worse when he was out of the lineup and had started skating to get his conditioning back.

“It’s something that you just have to deal with with the bubble,” McAvoy said of the fog and heat that comes with the apparatus. “When I was coming back, it was hard doing the conditioning. That was brutal. You’re getting bag skated and you’re trying to get that back and you don’t really have that much. Everything just gets trapped in there, you’re hunched over and you can’t breathe and it’s fogging up. Those weren’t the most fun skates.”

McAvoy had lost about 20 pounds while on a liquid diet. He said he’s about halfway back to his former weight of about 215 pounds while he’s battling the diet he’s still on.

“Softer stuff, mushy stuff,” said McAvoy. “It still hurts if I try to chew anything that’s kind of rough. It’s not fun. But every day we’re getting closer to having this thing be 100 percent.”

The B’s entered Tuesday’s matchup just inside the playoff bracket but only a point out of first place. Many players have said that the vibe around the team is much better than it was last year, when the team was dogged by contract issues to start the season with Jeremy Swayman and then during the season with captain Brad Marchand. It would eventually spin out of control and B’s management, after firing coach Jim Montgomery, held a fire sale at the trade deadline that included Marchand, Brandon Carlo and Charlie Coyle.

Despite the offloading of so many pieces, the B’s have surprised many with their season so far. McAvoy was asked what had to do change beyond winning games.

“I want to tread lightly on this because I don’t want to take a shot at last year or anything because there are a lot of guys that aren’t here anymore that I love deeply,” said McAvoy. “But I think the chemistry of this year, it feels a little different. We were able to sort of water that seed a little more. Last year we were right on the road. We didn’t get to do some of the bonding stuff to get to know each other. Then before we knew it, Monty was fired….This year was a little different. We were able to learn from the mistakes maybe of last year and find a way to get this team cohesive and as close as we can and I think that it’s helped us in this first half a lot.”

There’s also the feeling of of everyone starting on the same page that comes naturally with installing a new coach as the team did in bringing in Marco Sturm, who also brought a new system that was a departure from the zone defensive system the B’s had played for decades.

“Everybody’s starting together. It feels like we’re all taking the first step together. And it’s really good,” said McAvoy. “I think we’ve seen it this year how it’s progressed when we’ve started to understand how Sturmie’s system better and as the team’s building and growing together. It’s been cool, really. We’ve called a lot of guys up. We’ve got a lot of guys walking around here now. Obviously, it’s never good for people to be injured but we pulled a lot of guys in here that we’ve gotten a lot out of and have been part of a winning effort. The group is big right now, but everyone brings something special to it.”….

Victor Soderstrom, who has played well since finding his way into the lineup with all the injuries on the back end, was the 2019 11th overall pick of the Arizona Coyotes, who are now the Mammoth. He had yo-yoed between Arizona and their AHL affiliate in Tucson, getting 53 NHL over the course of four seasons.

He eventually went back home to Sweden to both find his game and the joy of playing it, he said. He has no ill feelings toward his former club. During that time his rights were traded to Chicago, which in turn flipped him to Boston last offseason.

“I think I got the chance (with Arizona). I just don’t think I ever played up to my capability when I was up there. I kind of lost the joy of hockey for a little bit there in the last year,” said Soderstrom, who has an assist and is plus-2 in four games . “I didn’t re-sign there because I felt like I had to find my game back and I had to do it somewhere else. Then at the end of that summer I explored the thought of maybe going somewhere else and thought of going back to Sweden for a year. The SHL is a good league. I did that and had a very fun and basically checked all the tings I wanted to do. I got what I wanted to get out of it. I had a goal of always to come back. I did and I’m happy to be a part of this organization.”…

Jordan Harris, Jonathan Aspirot, Henri Jokiharju, Michael Callahan and Matej Blumel – all rehabbing various injuries – skated before the B’s team session in the morning. Sturm said that none of the injured players’ returns are imminent.

Sturm also said that Viktor Arvidsson, who left last Thursday’s game in Winnipeg with a lower body injury, skated on Monday but did not skate on Tuesday with the other injured players. He said the Arvidsson was somewhat related to the injury he suffered on November 15 in Montreal, when he pulled up lame on a long puck chase.

“It’s a tricky one,” said Sturm.

Arvidsson missed seven games with the original injury.