Bruins’ Elias Lindholm exits game with lower-body injury

Boston Bruins

“Any time you have to help him off the ice, it’s usually not a good sign.”

The Bruins’ center depth took a major anthem during Thursday’s eventual overtime win over the Sabres. 

First-line center Elias Lindholm needed help getting off the ice in the second period against Buffalo after colliding with Sabres center Jordan Greenway at center ice. 

Lindholm dropped to the ice in pain after skating into Greenway, with the veteran center immediately tended to by Boston’s training staff. After eventually getting back on his skates, Lindholm needed help from both Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm to get off the ice and down the tunnel.

Lindholm did not return for the remainder of Thursday’s game, with Boston eventually ruling him out at the start of the third period with a lower-body injury.

Bruins head coach Marco Sturm did not have an official update on the veteran after Boston’s eventual 4-3 overtime win. However, he did have an ominous observation about the optics that played out on the frozen sheet.

“We have to reassess tomorrow, but — yeah, I didn’t see the replay yet,” Sturm said. “But any time you have to help him off the ice, it’s usually not a good sign.”

An extended absence for Lindholm would stand as a major setback for a Bruins team that has seen the 30-year-old forward bounce back after an uneven first year with Boston in 2024-25. 

Entering Thursday’s game against Buffalo, Lindholm posted four goals and nine points over 12 games — averaging 18:22 of ice time and winning 57.1 percent of his faceoffs.

All four of his goals have come on the power play, with only Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev lighting the lamp more times on the man advantage this year with five. 

Sturm and the Bruins would have some tough decisions to make if Lindholm has to spend time on the shelf — especially as far as who takes over as Boston’s leading-line center next to David Pastrnak.

Boston’s second line currently has two natural centermen on it in both Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt. But that trio alongside Viktor Arvidsson has actually started landing punches in the offensive zone as of late — with Boston outscoring opponents, 6-3, over their 88:13 of 5-on-5 reps this season.

Zacha’s playmaking capabilities and chemistry with Pastrnak makes him potentially the leading candidate for a leading-line promotion. 

If the Bruins want to turn to Providence for reinforcements, they could also call up Matt Poitras — who has recorded six assists in seven games so far in the AHL ranks this season. 

But Sturm also said that he pleased by the play of Marat Khusnutdinov — who shifted over to center in place of Lindholm on Thursday and eventually buried the OT winner.

“Since he’s back — he’s been really good,” Sturm said of Khusnutdinov. “And even with Elias out, I put him back in the middle, and he was excellent, too. So he’s actually — he’s very fun to movie right today, and that’s why I didn’t hesitate to put him out there on the three-on-three.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.