Boston Bruins
“I’m super thankful and it’s nice to be healthy.”
Hampus Lindholm has plenty to smile about these days.
The Bruins defenseman and his fiancée, Amanda, welcomed their first child, Magnolia, last week.
“My fiancée — her family … they work with plants and flowers and stuff, and that’s always been her favorite tree,” Lindholm said of the meaning behind his daughter’s name. “And funny story — randomly, we ended up getting engaged underneath a magnolia tree. … I love the name, and it’s actually been sticking since we knew we were having a girl. So it feels right.”
So far, the 31-year-old blueliner hasn’t had too many sleepless nights — even if he expects that to change in short order. All seems to be going well for Lindholm, who also returned to Boston’s lineup last week after being hampered by a lower-body injury.
“She slept great last night,” Lindholm said after Monday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve that, but it’s been great. … I’m super thankful and it’s nice to be healthy and be out there and play with the guys, too. I think I’ve got a lot to be thankful for right now.”
The Bruins have echoed a similar sentiment to Lindholm over the last few days when it comes to thankfulness.
With the defenseman now back in Boston’s lineup, it should come as little surprise that the Bruins’ porous defensive structure has tightened up — and the team is starting to stack some wins.
So far this season, the Bruins are 5-1-0 when Lindholm has taken to the ice, giving up 2.3 goals per game.
In the eight games where Lindholm was sidelined with a lower-body injury first sustained in Boston’s home opener, the Bruins went 2-6-0 while coughing up 4.25 goals per contest.
For Bruins head coach Marco Sturm, it doesn’t take much to notice the correlation between Lindholm’s availability and the team’s overall success.
“Let’s start in the room first. Because you guys only see what he brings on the ice. I see both,” Sturm said Monday of Lindholm’s impact. “I see what he brings in the room, just his presence alone. He’s not shy. He talks a lot in the room.
“He’s helping everyone out and in a positive way. And then on the ice — not just for his partner, but overall, he brings a certain calmness in our group. Of course, he’s been around for a little bit. That helps. I think we talked about it the other day — our record with him in the lineup is pretty damn good. So there must be a reason.”
While Lindholm has only recorded one point so far through six games this season, his ability to snuff out scoring chances, send clean passes out of the D zone, and ferry pucks through the neutral zone has allowed the Bruins defensive structure to breathe a bit easier these days.
While the Bruins have been outscored, 4-2, in Lindholm’s 79:55 of 5-on-5 ice time this season, the veteran has also been handed a heaping portion of taxing D-zone shifts and daunting matchups — with only Jonathan Aspirot (29.4) having a lower offensive-zone faceoff percentage than Lindholm (30.6).
With Lindholm back in the lineup and anchoring a second pair next to Andrew Peeke, Sturm and his staff also have the luxury of putting together a top defensive duo of Charlie McAvoy and Nikita Zadorov, who have dominated since getting put together last week.
As the Bruins soldier on without Elias Lindholm, who Sturm deemed as “week-to-week” moving forward after suffering a lower-body injury last week against Buffalo, Boston’s bench boss made one thing clear.
The grinding approach that Boston adopted in Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Hurricanes has to be the strategy that his team must carry out this season in order to accrue points.
It’s an approach that becomes easier to adopt when a healthy Hampus Lindholm is leading the charge from the blue line.
“If you look at our lineup, if we look at our roster, this is everything,” Sturm said of Boston’s defensive buy-in. “We’re not — again — we’re not elite [offensively], but we have some weapons. We have some grinders. We are a good mix, but we need to be structured, and we need everyone to buy in. Absolutely.
“And you can see it in the last game. If you don’t do that, I think you’re just not going to survive, not just against Carolina, but in this league, pretty much. So we have to play that kind of way to to have success. That’s just what I believe.”
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
