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

Boston Bruins

With Lindholm out, Marat Khusnutdinov is expected to skate on Boston’s top line.

By Conor Ryan

October 31, 2025 | 4:34 PM

2 minutes to read

The Bruins are going to be without their top-line center for at least a solid stretch of games moving forward.

Speaking on Friday, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm confirmed that center Elias Lindholm is “going to be out for at least a few weeks” after exiting Thursday’s overtime win over the Sabres with a lower-body injury. 

Sturm added that Lindholm — who appeared to injure his knee after awkwardly colliding with Sabres forward Jordan Greenway at center ice during the second period — will undergo an MRI on Friday to determine the severity of the injury. 

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

An extended time spent on the shelf stands as a tough setback for both the Bruins and Lindholm — who was off to a strong start this season after an uneven 2024-25 campaign in his first year with Boston. 

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.

Lindholm’s absence will be felt on Boston’s 13th-ranked power play — as all four of his goals have come on the man advantage. Only Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev has lit the lamp more times on the power play this year with five.

Even though Boston’s second line currently features two natural centermen in Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt, Sturm will roll with Marat Khusnutdinov as the team’s first-line center between David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie.

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

“I always say, just play your game,” Pastrnak said of his advice to Khusnutdinov. “There’s the reason you get promoted to this line and your game got you here. So just play your game. I will adjust to you. You don’t have to adjust to me.

“But Khusy — he’s awesome guy. He’s very great kid in in the room, you know, and everybody loves him. He brings such a positive energy every single day. So we couldn’t be happier for for a guy like him.”

 

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