Marco Sturm discovers a good problem to have in Bruins' preseason win over Flyers

For the first time in the past three seasons, a Boston Bruins head coach has a bit more high-end depth to choose from with JJ Peterka's addition to the top six. Instead of searching for a forward who can make the jump to that level, with it luckily being Viktor Arvidsson last season, the head coach now has six forwards who are certain to start the season there: Peterka, David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha, and Casey Mittelstadt.

The only thing left for Sturm to figure out was the line combinations, and he hadn't gone too far outside the box by putting Pastrnak, Lindholm, and Geekie together to start camp, the infamous trio from last season, which many felt was one of the team's worst lines when put together. Instead of combining Pastrnak and Peterka, Sturm inserted Peterka on the second line with Zacha and Mittelstadt to try to capitalize on the two ex-Buffalo Sabres to regain some old chemistry.

It looked like these would be the top six combinations to start the regular season, and that's how the trios rolled out for their first preseason game together against the Philadelphia Flyers. After two periods, Pastrnak's line was predictably quiet, with fans again jumping all over Lindholm on social media. However, Peterka was driving the play with Mittelstadt and Zacha, giving hope that the Bruins' second line could be elite again this season.

Instead of resting on his laurels and hoping Pastrnak's line would figure it out, Sturm shuffled the lines and created two combinations that made it seem like Causeway Crowd's Scott Roche had a crystal ball with his lineup predictions earlier this week. Out of nowhere, Pastrnak was getting the chance to play with Peterka, with Lindholm as their center, while Geekie dropped down with Zacha and Mittelstadt.

How Marco Sturm's line combinations looked against Flyers

None of the lines were terrible on Tuesday night, though they faced a bare-bones Flyers team. The best line on the advanced-analytics side was Pastrnak, Peterka, and Lindholm, as the two skilled wingers were snapped the puck around like the Globetrotters of hockey at times, especially during a four-on-four shift in the third period.

Calling them the globetrotters isn't exactly a term of endearment, as there is a path to the pair being a bit too susceptible to overpassing and trying to make the nice play. However, if the Bruins' offense goes stale and Sturm needs a boost, being able to play them together at five-on-five is an interesting possibility.

It wasn't just that line who had some success, as the new-look Zacha, Mittelstadt, Geekie line had a great offensive zone shift that led to Lindholm's goal coming off the bench when Zacha made a change during possession. It doesn't reflect in their advanced numbers because of the line change on that play, but they had some great shifts.

Some of the advanced numbers didn't reflect how good the eye test was, and it is worth noting again about the lack of talent in Philadelphia's lineup. However, Sturm now knows he has four different line combinations he can roll out to get the offense going. While it would've been easy to find two trios who worked well together and stick with them in training camp, this is a good problem to have for the head coach.

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