The Boston Bruins may have won Game 5 against the Buffalo Sabres to stretch the series to six games, but the energy forward's absence was felt on the team's second line. Marco Sturm had to throw the lines into a blender, which gave David Pastrnak a new line and turned into his best game of the series, but a player like Casey Mittelstadt missed the familiarity of Arvidsson.
Marco Sturm said "unless there's a miracle" he doesn't expect Viktor Arvidsson (upper body injury) to play in Game 6 tomorrow night
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) April 30, 2026
Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha, and Marat Khusnutdinov will almost certainly stick together on the top line, but Sturm now faces the difficult decision of whether he is going to make any other changes. The old-school mentality of Sturm will likely lead to him sticking with what won the game for him on Tuesday, but there are some other ways he can improve the offense.
James Hagens has been a healthy scratch since Game 3, but he was alternating reps with Alex Steeves on the second powerplay unit at practice on Thursday. Steeves and Michael Eyssimont played an extremely gritty game for the Bruins on Tuesday, and were a positive with their reliability, but the advanced numbers showed that they didn't have too much of an effect on the offense.
The question now is whether Sturm is considering inserting Hagens for Steeves, as he can take advantage of the matchups on home ice. Eyssimont feels like he earned another look with his forechecking abilities and the energy he gave to the team, but Steeves is someone who can leave the lineup for Hagens and it not have too much of an effect.
It'll be very interesting to see what Sturm decides for Friday night. With Arvidsson needing a miracle to play in Game 6, it's hard to see a scenario where he is ready for a possible Game 7. Sturm may make the decision to ride out the Game 5 lineup for the rest of the series, win or lose, which not many Bruins fans would disagree with, but there will be some still wondering if Hagens will get a look for Game 6.
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