Bruins lose Charlie McAvoy for Game 4.

The Boston Bruins will be without one of their top defensemen for a pivotal Game 4 in their opening round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes.

There were some rumblings earlier this morning that McAvoy could be absent from the Bruins lineup, but initial reports suggested that everything was looking status quo for the Bruins on Sunday. Now however the Bruins have officially confirmed that McAvoy will in fact be forced onto the sidelines after he tested positive for Covid-19 at some point between the conclusion of Friday's Game 3 and now.

There's no sugar coating this, this is a devastating blow to a Boston Bruins team that is already down a game in the series. To make matters worse McAvoy will now need a series of negative tests before he can return to play, and there's no telling when that might be given that there has been a tremendous level of variance in these cases from player to player.

Stay tuned for more details.