At the end of the first period of Thursday night's 4-3 overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks, it was reported that Hampus Lindholm was not on the Boston bench. When they came out for the second period, he was still missing. Later in the middle period, it was announced that he was out for the rest of the game with a lower-body injury.
The first thing that popped into the mind of Bruins fans was the knee injury he suffered last November in a game against the St. Louis Blues, blocking a shot on the penalty kill. Was it the same knee that cost him the rest of the season? Was it another injury? You can breathe, for now, Bruins fans, after the game when coach Marco Sturm gave an update on his left-shot defenseman.
Sturm said a "minor injury'' for Lindholm that wasn't related to his knee. That, for now, is good news, as losing him again for a lengthy amount of time would be tough on the backend for the Black and Gold.
The bank is open
Most publications have the Bruins missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the spring, and that very well may happen, however, winning games like they did against the Blackhawks, rallying at home to win in overtime, is key in collecting points early in the season.
"No, it's big,'' said Elias Lindholm. "Obviously, Korpi saved us there in OT and we needed that. We need games like this. I think last year we came up a lot on the other side of it and lost a lot of games at the end, and so on. So obviously, this creates momentum for us for sure."
This is a game that Boston would have lost last year. Falling behind at home after grabbing the game's first goal, and looking tired on the backend of a back-to-back in the middle period. Instead, they rode the hot hand of Joonas Korpisalo in goal and got an overtime goal from Fraser Minten to cap off a win that is going to have to be their formula for winning in 2025-26. Banking points early is a must if they want to extend their season past the regular season.
“Those kinds of wins are important for us,” Sturm said. “Our body language is important. Our having life on the bench, feeding off the crowd is important. That’s what I remember about the Boston Bruins, and that’s what we need now.”
Scoring ran deep against Blackhawks
In the win over Washington, the Bruins' top line of Elias Lindholm, David Pastrnak, and Morgan Geekie supplied one goal each. That is not going to be a path to success for Boston this year, and they are going to need depth scoring. Against Chicago, they got it.
Casey Mittlestadt opened the scoring in the first period, and Tanner Jeannot added a goal second period to tie the game 202. Elias Lindholm scored a power play goal early in the third period before Minten buried the game-winner in overtime. Three goals from your bottom-nine, a recipe for success.
“It's huge,” said Sturm. “Because they (the top line) can't do it every night. I wish. The top guys have to be the top guys every night, no question, but you also need some secondary scoring. So, it was good that we had those guys jumping in as well.”