NBC Local\u2019s \u201cMy New Favorite Olympian.\u201d<\/a> \u201cAnd travel hockey was not cheap back then. And the hours were much different. The ice slots were not available as they are now. So, we stuck with it as long as we could. But my dad just couldn\u2019t swing it.<\/p>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t get that opportunity, and I wanted to make sure that Charlie and his sisters had that opportunity to play and give it their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie began skating at the age of 3. He wouldn\u2019t follow in his ancestors\u2019 footsteps while on skates, but he\u2019d go on to learn elements of the work ethic and physical grind that made the family business successful for decades. He\u2019d spend some days \u2014 often under the sweltering summer sun \u2014 as a plumber\u2019s helper. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be all excited to go do it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd very early in the day, I found out that we were doing some undesired work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like jackhammering the sidewalk and digging through sand to reach a water main with his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe threw me the shovel and basically was like, \u2018Hey, dig until you hear a pipe,\u2019\u201d Charlie said.<\/p>\n
Charlie said he has the utmost respect for plumbers and trade workers, but he knew his father wanted something different for him — like a career where the tools of the trade include a hockey stick and puck instead of a jackhammer and wrench.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day I saw him work, he\u2019s putting everything he has into that,\u201d Charlie said. \u201cSo, I knew I owed it to him to put everything I had into hockey, the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father also happened to quite literally have the keys to success \u2026 as in the keys to the local hockey rink.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was converting the whole building from oil to gas and putting in new equipment and gas lines, et cetera. So, they gave me the keys,\u201d Charles said. \u201cThey said, ‘Anytime I want to use it, go.’ And Charlie was young and we took full advantage of that. We were probably there every night of the week when he was a little guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie began to develop the skating skills he\u2019d later use on the ice while competing for a Stanley Cup and gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis skating took off because skating is the whole game and he just loved getting on the ice,\u201d Charles said. \u201cI\u2019d get off because I\u2019d be exhausted from work and he would just stay out there and I would just sit and let him do his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After growing up on Long Beach, an oceanfront city on the south shore of Long Island, Charlie played two seasons with USA Hockey\u2019s National Team Development Program in Michigan. He went on to play for Boston University, being named a first team All-American in his sophomore season.<\/p>\n
Charlie was then selected by the Bruins with the 14th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, making the NHL All-Rookie Team after recording seven goals and 25 assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we had the crystal ball and would have known,\u201d Charlie said. \u201cBut [Charles] did it because he saw that it made me happy and it was something I wanted to do. There\u2019s nothing I can do to repay him for that sacrifice he made.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father refused to teach his son how to fix leaky pipes so he could keep his focus between the pipes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a clue how to how to plumb \u2026 I don\u2019t even know if that\u2019s the tense in which you\u2019d say it,\u201d Charlie said. \u201cI think he purposely didn\u2019t teach me a thing on plumbing. I called him the other day because my faucet was a little off center, and he\u2019s trying to walk me through it. And halfway I just said, \u2018Bring your tools when you come up, I\u2019ll have you fix it.\u2019 He goes, \u2018I\u2019m going to charge you, though.\u2019 I said, \u2018Go ahead.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles McAvoy Sr. did not want his son to take over the family plumbing business. He made sure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-424994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}