By: Declan Flavin | Follow me on Twitter / X @FlavinDeclan
It has been a few days since centerman Elias Lindholm went down after knee-on-knee contact with Buffalo Sabre forward Jordan Greenway, and the impact of this simply cannot be forgotten down the stretch. The team will feel it more than Lindholm will, with added responsibility for the centermen on the roster who now jump up a spot within the forward lines.
It is one thing to replace the player’s physical makeup, but it is another thing to try and replace Lindholm’s hockey intelligence and persistence. He is a player that was brought on board to emulate the stapled two-way centermen the Bruins have had, like Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. He has not been playing exactly similar to those players in terms of impact and game-to-game consistency, but when Lindholm’s game is on, he is helping your defense keep the puck out of the net and supporting the team’s offensive push in any way.
For the direct replacement and centerman Marat Khusnutdinov, he will be the one most cognizant of replacing that style, while the other centers behind him will be looking to speed up the progression of their game to both play to Head Coach Marco Sturm’s preference and also deliver more statistical output. This will be the crucial balancing act to manage going forward, along with the positive that the younger skaters can continue to mold the Bruins’ new identity.
Khusnutdinov plays with a high pace that the Bruins want to play with, so that will be refreshing to watch, but his pesky play in the defensive zone needs to be there in order for Lindholm’s style not to be completely absent. Forwards Pavel Zacha, Fraser Minten, and Sean Kuraly will continue to take on their roles as secondary centers, and they allow an absence like this to be diluted by the collective energetic effort that they drive on both sides of the ice. However, Khusnutdinov’s inexperience will surely test these players eventually by forcing them into a higher spot in the lineup, and that is where the contributions will be spread out and less concentrated.
Hopefully this domino effect will not happen too much while Lindholm is out, but the injury’s severity opens the door for it. From what the injury itself and the media feedback look and sound like, Lindholm could be out much longer than just a few weeks.
This could potentially mean a veteran center like Zacha would stay with the team instead of fulfilling some of the trade rumors out there. It could be a potential blessing in disguise for an organization that needs as much experience as it can get while also moving along with the youth. Regardless, it is all hands on deck moving forward, and players need to try their best to deliver what they have and close the gap on the defensive absence that Lindholm leaves behind.
Leave a Reply