First came the celebration on the ice. Rookie center Fraser Minten capped off a thrilling Bruins home opener with an overtime goal to give Boston a 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks and a 2-0-0 start to the season.
Then came the sigh of relief about a half hour later. Bruins coach Marco Sturm stepped to the podium for his postgame press conference and was immediately asked about the lower-body injury that had ended Hampus Lindholm’s night just 12 minutes into the game.
“Just a minor injury,” Sturm said. “Not related to his old injury. Just want to make sure he’ll be OK. He’s gonna get tested [Friday], and then we’ll see.”
Phew.
While it’s possible Lindholm misses a game or two just to be safe, this was way better news than what Bruins fans may have feared during the final 50 minutes of Thursday’s game.
Connecting some dots was understandable. Lindholm missed all but 17 games last season with a fractured kneecap. His recovery took longer than expected and required a follow-up procedure that was not initially part of the plan. It is a notoriously tricky injury. Whatever injury Lindholm suffered Thursday appeared to be non-contact, sparking concerns that he may have felt something in the same knee.
Fortunately, that was not the case. The positive update was just the latest thing to break right for these Bruins in the early going, and it allowed this 2-0-0 start to be celebrated without any lingering anxiety.
A lot is going exactly as Sturm and the Bruins would have hoped so far. In Wednesday’s season-opening win in Washington, they got star performances from Jeremy Swayman and David Pastrnak and won the special teams battle. That is perhaps the blueprint this team will need to rely on most, but it can’t be their only path to wins this season.
Well, on Thursday, Swayman had the night off and Pastrnak got bottled up most of the game. The Bruins needed others to step up, and they did.
Joonas Korpisalo was fine in net for most of the night, but he was excellent in overtime and pretty much stole Boston a second point. First he robbed Frank Nazar with a desperate stick save, a save that teammate Tanner Jeannot said was one of the best he’s ever seen. Then he snagged a Connor Bedard breakaway attempt with his glove. A minute and a half later, Minten ended the game.
After the Bruins’ first line provided all the offense Wednesday, it was the second line that opened the scoring Thursday just 3:53 into the game, with Viktor Arvidsson dangling around Blackhawks defenseman Artyom Levshunov on the rush before throwing a pass to the front that Casey Mittelstadt eventually poked home. The play started with a great backcheck by Pavel Zacha to break up a Chicago chance at the other end.
The Blackhawks scored the next two goals to take the lead, but then it was the third line’s turn to get on the score sheet. Mikey Eyssimont spun off two defenders out of the corner before wheeling into the slot and taking a shot that produced a juicy rebound for Tanner Jeannot to bury. It was the first point as a Bruin for each of them.
The fourth line didn’t score Thursday, but they did draw two penalties. The second of those – a Ryan Greene crosscheck on Marat Khusnutdinov – helped set up a 5-on-3 power-play goal that gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead early in the third period.
That was the Bruins’ second power-play goal in as many games, and the second for Elias Lindholm. Boston’s penalty kill went 3-for-3 Thursday to improve to a perfect 8-for-8 on the season.
And then, of course, it was Minten in overtime, with the Bruins’ 21-year-old third-line center taking off on a 200-foot 2-on-1 and faking a pass before snapping a shot past Arvid Soderblom.
“It's huge,” Sturm said of the secondary scoring. “Because they [the top line] can't do it every night. I wish. The top guys have to be the top guys every night, no question, but you also need some secondary scoring. So, it was good that we had those guys jumping in as well.”
It’s only two games. And yes, the Blackhawks are expected to be one of the worst teams in the league once again. But a 2-0-0 start is a 2-0-0 start. The Bruins have won two different types of games. They’ve already gotten contributions from just about everyone on the roster.
This is exactly what they needed as they try to build belief in themselves, and in their new coach’s system. And even the one negative so far – Hampus Lindholm leaving Thursday’s game injured – turned out to not be as big a deal as initially feared.