When James Hagens left the ice injured midway through the third period on Thursday night of the Boston Bruins 6-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, it didn't look good. Hagens made a move around Penguins defenseman Sam Girard, who cross-checked him in the back as he attempted a scoring opportunity. He was denied, but he left the ice and didn't return.
Boston didn't practice on Friday, and on Saturday morning, the team announced that they were placing Hagens on injured reserve. After practice at Warrior Ice Arena, head coach Marco Sturm said that his 20-year-old forward is going to be out for a while. During practice, Sturm moved around his lines, which he said could be a sign of things to come on Sunday afternoon against the Florida Panthers.
“For the most part, yes,” Sturm said, per BostonBruins.com. “But we also have Mikey coming in and then we will decide today or tomorrow how I have those line combination going in for tomorrow. D will stay the same.”
Mikey is Mikey Eyssimont, whom the Black and Gold recalled from the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL) to be the 13th forward. Whether he plays or not on Sunday remains to be seen, but there was noticeable tinkering by Sturm.
Marco Sturm hints at new potential lines against the Panthers
With Hagens out, according to Jim McBride of the Boston Globe, there was some line schuffling at practice on Saturday with Matthew Poitras sliding up to the second line with Morgan Geekie and Fraser Minten, with Marat Khusnutdinov. Again, as Sturm said above, Eyssimont is expected in town before the 1 p.m. puck drop on Sunday.
#Bruins Saturday practice lines, D pairs:
— Jim McBride (@globejimmcbride) November 7, 2026
Peterka-Zacha-Pastrnak
Poitras-Minten-Geekie
Mittelstadt-Lindholm-Khusnutdinov
Jeannot-Kuraly-Kastelic
Lindholm-McAvoy
Zadorov-Borgen
Brunet-Lohrei
Aspirot-Clifton
Swayman
DiPietro
As for the Bruins lines, Sturm said that Khusnutdinov going down to the third line makes sense with Mittlestadt and Lindholm.
“We use this line for a shutdown line most of the time,” said Sturm. “We thought the next guy up will be probably a guy like Khus, he is just one of them. “We'll see. Might give it a try tomorrow, but we do have some options.''
They do have options, and if we're being honest, Sturm even thinking about playing Eyssimont on Sunday would likely be due to the physical play that the Panthers install. With Poitras coming back from his nose injury last week against the Vegas Golden Knights, does he have a part in any lineup decisions? Time will tell, but we are looking at several different lines with Hagens out of the lineup for the foreseeable future.
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