Bruins’ Elias Lindholm will miss ‘a few weeks’, Khusnutdinov to 1C

The Bruins are going to be with out their top-line heart for no less than a stable stretch of video games transferring ahead.

Talking on Friday, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm confirmed that heart Elias Lindholm is “going to be out for no less than a couple of weeks” after exiting Thursday’s additional time win over the Sabres with a lower-body harm. 

Sturm added that Lindholm — who appeared to injure his knee after awkwardly colliding with Sabres ahead Jordan Greenway at heart ice throughout the second interval — will endure an MRI on Friday to find out the severity of the harm. 

Lindholm wanted assist getting off the ice on Thursday after skating into Greenway, with the 30-year-old pivot needing assist from each Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm to get off the ice and down the tunnel.

An prolonged time spent on the shelf stands as a troublesome setback for each the Bruins and Lindholm — who was off to a powerful begin this season after an uneven 2024-25 marketing campaign in his first yr with Boston. 

Getting into Thursday’s recreation towards Buffalo, Lindholm posted 4 targets and 9 factors over 12 video games — averaging 18:22 of ice time and successful 57.1 % of his faceoffs.

Lindholm’s absence can be felt on Boston’s Thirteenth-ranked energy play — as all 4 of his targets have come on the person benefit. Solely Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev has lit the lamp extra occasions on the facility play this yr with 5.

Despite the fact that Boston’s second line at present options two pure centermen in Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt, Sturm will roll with Marat Khusnutdinov because the workforce’s first-line heart between David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie.

Khusnutdinov has spent the final two video games skating in a top-line function, and scored the OT winner against Buffalo on Thursday. 

“I at all times say, simply play your recreation,” Pastrnak stated of his recommendation to Khusnutdinov. “There’s the rationale you get promoted to this line and your recreation bought you right here. So simply play your recreation. I’ll alter to you. You don’t have to regulate to me.

“However Khusy — he’s superior man. He’s very nice child in within the room, you understand, and everyone loves him. He brings such a constructive power each single day. So we couldn’t be happier for for a man like him.”

 

Conor Ryan is a workers author masking the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Crimson Sox for Boston.com, a job he has held since 2023.