Fourteen games remain in the 2025-26 season for the Boston Bruins, who are in the thick of an intense Eastern Conference playoff race. They enter Thursday night's game at the TD Garden tied with the Detroit Red Wings in the wild-card race.
If Boston is going to get into the playoffs, they are going to have to outlast some very good teams with a difficult schedule coming up to close out the month. They are also going to need players to step up in scoring and provide offensive production. They also need more from their stars.
One of those players who has not played well lately is center Elias Lindholm. It makes you wonder if he's dealing with an injury after the Olympic break. He was hurt before the break, but it appeared that he was feeling better.
On Thursday morning, head coach Marco Sturm spoke after a morning skate at the TD Garden before playing the Jets. He had one comment that opened some eyes and made you rethink what he might be seeing, compared to everyone else.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm dropped eye-opening quote about Elias Lindholm
Lindholm hasn't looked good the last couple of games. However, Sturm said he liked his game more recently, which makes you wonder what he's seeing. Sturm went on to basically call out Morgan Geekie, who leads his team in goals instead. Not a great look.
For reference, in his last five games, Lindholm has no points, nine shots on the net, and a plus/minus of minus-4. He has not looked good in all situations and has been dropped to the third line with Geekie. Against Winnipeg, they will have Lukas Reichel, who was recently acquired at the trade deadline and called up from the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL) on Wednesday night.
It feels an awful lot like Sturm is defending Lindholm, which is interesting. It also appears that he's calling out his leading goal-scorer. Interesting. Whatever the message is here, more power to you if you can figure it out. What it looks like is a concerning quote from Sturm, which, well, we'll see how it ends up playing out on Thursday night.