Bruins roll out surprising new defense pairings before Charlie McAvoy's return

Since Hampus Lindholm joined the Boston Bruins, coaches haven't been able to pair him with Charlie McAvoy. Because of limited depth on defense, it made more sense to pair one of each in the top four, giving the team two capable duos. However, with the blueline playing well during McAvoy's suspension, head coach Marco Sturm believes now may be the time to pair them together.

Lindholm and Borgen were solid together, outscoring opponents 6-1 when they were on the ice. There was a bit of luck involved, as their expected goals percentage was much closer to the 50% mark, but either way, they were winning the majority of their shifts. It felt like something that Sturm could rely on as he figured out the rest of his pairings.

Instead, he'll keep the young pairing of Brunet and Lohrei together, which is another example of the head coach leaning on the youth movement. They've also played well as a pair, outscoring opponents 3-0 and owning a 53.3% xGF. The positive of the defense playing so well was that there were no wrong answers for Sturm in McAvoy's return.

Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm have great results together

McAvoy and Lindholm have been teammates since 2022, and while many teams might've loaded them up on the top pair, the Bruins have mostly used the strategy of keeping them separated. However, they've sometimes united to form a formidable duo, playing 896 minutes together at five-on-five over the past four-and-a-half seasons.

They've been dominant in every analytic, outscoring their opponents 51-25, owning a 56% xGF, 57.7% SF% (ratio of shots for and against), and a 54.9% Corsi. If all the Bruins head coaches had been able to play the two together, they would've, because they've just been that good.

There is an important caveat here, as Lindholm hasn't really been the same player since the knee injury that knocked him out for most of the 2024-25 season. They'll likely still form a good pairing, but it might not be as much of a force as the analytics from the 2022-24 seasons would suggest.

It'll be interesting to see how long of a leash Sturm has for his pairings. Will Brunet-Lohrei become a long-term pairing, while the top four shuffles to find the right fit? Will Lohrei or Brunet eventually bottom out on this run they are on and open the door for Clifton to return to the lineup? Either way, the Bruins' blue line is in much better shape than it was last season.

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