Charlie McAvoy on Bruins, USA hockey, more - ESPN

Defenseman Charlie McAvoy is one of the foundational players for the Boston Bruins, who have shown how sturdy their foundation is this season. After setting regular-season records for wins and points in 2022-23, the Bruins have overcome some offseason adversity to challenge for the league lead in points again.

McAvoy joined ESPN's «The Drop» podcast this week to talk about the Bruins, potentially playing for Team USA in the upcoming Four Nations tournament and chasing gold at the Olympics, his Super Bowl pick for this Sunday and his history with football as a die-hard New York Giants fan. Enjoy!

Note: The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Q. The Bruins have been one of the best stories of the season so far: Pressing for the President's Trophy again after losing some key players and suffering that devastating loss in the playoffs in the first round. Has this season been a surprise for you at all? Or were you confident that the Bruins still had this kind of season in them?

Saturday, starting at 1 ET with Blues-Sabres (ABC/ESPN+), followed by Caps-Bruins (3:30, ABC/ESPN+) and Kraken-Flyers (7, ESPN+/Hulu).
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McAvoy: I was definitely surprised. I'll say it. I won't hide it. We lost a lot of guys. Maybe it was the outside noise, but I think I embraced an underdog role this year. I think our team did as well. As we started stringing together our identity and winning more and more hockey games, I was kind of like, how are we doing this? And then it sort of clicked. Like, okay, this isn't luck. We're a really good hockey team again.

Are we built like last year? No, not at all. We're more of a «put it in deep» team now vs. line rush. We're more of a «wear