On Monday, Jim Montgomery was asked if the case could be made that Hampus Lindholm had been the Bruins’ most impactful player through 16 games.
“Yeah, for sure,” the Boston coach responded.
In the team’s 17th game on Tuesday, Lindholm suffered a lower-body injury while blocking a shot, appearing to get hit on or just above the knee. On Wednesday, Montgomery said that Lindholm would be lost for “weeks” as a result.
“It’s going to be weeks,” he said. “So, ‘weeks’ is plural. Don’t ask me next week, please.”
(UPDATE: Rich "Scoops" Keefe said on Jones & Keefe on Thursday that Lindholm suffered a fractured kneecap.)
It’s a huge loss for the Bruins, because what Montgomery said on Monday is correct. There is absolutely a case to be made that Lindholm has been Boston’s best player this season.
The 30-year-old defenseman had been asserting himself much more offensively than he was able to last year, with his three goals in 17 games already matching his total from all of last season. He is tied for second on the team in 5-on-5 goals (3) and tied for fourth in 5-on-5 points (6). He is averaging over two shots on goal per game, way up from his 1.36 shots per game last year.
On a per-60-minute basis at 5-on-5 play, Lindholm has been on the ice for more shots, goals and expected goals than any other Bruins defenseman. His 56.2% expected goals share is also first among defensemen and second on the team overall (behind only Morgan Geekie, believe it or not).
Montgomery had moved Lindholm to the top power-play unit in place of Charlie McAvoy ahead of Tuesday’s game in St. Louis in the hopes that Lindholm’s shot mentality and offensive confidence would help spark the struggling man advantage. That experiment was short-lived thanks to the injury.
The Bruins may miss Lindholm on the power play. They will definitely miss him everywhere else. They just don’t have another left-shot defenseman who can impact the game at both ends of the ice and in all situations the way Lindholm can when he’s on top of his game, which he had been this season.
Nikita Zadorov is clearly still getting acclimated to the Bruins’ system. The speed at which he does so is now even more important as Boston will need to lean on him more, especially in key defensive, shutdown situations. Regardless, Zadorov does not have the offensive acumen of Lindholm.
Mason Lohrei may very well be able to match or exceed Lindholm’s offense, but the 23-year-old second-year pro still has plenty to learn defensively. He is the favorite to move into a top-four role with Lindholm out after playing mostly third-pairing minutes this season. He will also be quarterbacking the second power-play unit, with McAvoy resuming his role on the top unit.
With Andrew Peeke also out week-to-week with an upper-body injury, the Bruins called up Jordan Oesterle from AHL Providence on Wednesday. He will make his Boston debut Thursday night in Dallas. The 32-year-old left shot brings 371 games of NHL experience across 10 seasons and had eight points (3 goals, 5 assists) in nine games with the P-Bruins this year. Montgomery is looking to him to help the Bruins’ transition game.
“His skating. His mobility,” Montgomery said when asked what parts of Oesterle’s game stood out in training camp. “He’s an excellent skater in every possible fashion. His edges, his pivots, his lateral movement, the offensive blue line, his retrievals. And then it’s his brain. He’s a real smart hockey player that is exceptional at breaking the puck out and transitioning pucks.”
The Bruins already had enough issues to work through as they try to snap out of their early-season “malaise,” to use Montgomery’s word from Saturday. Tuesday’s comeback win over the Blues may have been a start, but the Bruins have had other potential turning points fall by the wayside thanks to an inability to build on them.
That quest for consistency just became even more challenging with Lindholm now out for a crucial stretch at least through the end of the month. The Bruins have to hope his absence forces the rest of the team to rally, forces McAvoy to play like the elite No. 1 defenseman that he can be and that he was on Tuesday, and forces the likes of Zadorov and Lohrei to step up and show they are ready to do more.