Charlie McAvoy is back, and the Bruins are already adjusting on the fly.
With his suspension over, Boston hit the ice Monday in San Jose and worked through a fresh set of defensive pairings ahead of Tuesday’s late-night meeting with the Sharks. The group that took shape at Sharks Ice looked different from the one the Bruins had been using, with McAvoy slotting back in next to Hampus Lindholm on the top pair.
Behind them, Nikita Zadorov and Will Borgen formed the second unit, while Frederic Brunet and Mason Lohrei were the third pair, according to Belle Fraser of BostonBruins.com. Connor Clifton was the odd man out, skating as part of an extra pair with Jonathan Aspirot.
Bruins practice lines:
Geekie-Zacha-Pastrnak
Khusnutdinov-Minten-Peterka
Mittelstadt-E. Lindholm-Hagens
Jeannot-Poitras-Kastelic
Kuraly
H. Lindholm-McAvoy
Zadorov-Borgen
Brunet-Lohrei
Aspirot-Clifton
Swayman
DiPietro
- Belle Fraser (@bellefraser1) October 12, 2026
After practice, head coach Marco Sturm said the Bruins will “most likely” go with those same defensive pairings against San Jose.
“Yeah, most likely,” Sturm said to reporters in San Jose. “Again, they are tough choices.
Not only because some guys are not playing well. That’s not the truth.
I think they all played real well. Sometimes it goes by hands or by feeling, whatever it is.
We are early too; we have to figure out how we got to do that moving forward.”
“I think we feel already comfortable [ahead] of tomorrow. It’s a tough road trip. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but we might need all of them at one point, including the forwards, so we’ll see.”
Sturm also made it clear that while the opponent can sometimes shape the lineup, that isn’t the case for the Sharks.
Clifton has been in the lineup for all six games of the 2026-27 season and had been working to the right of Zadorov. Aspirot, meanwhile, played in the first three games. Last Friday, Sturm said “it was not even fair to get (Aspirot) out because he played actually pretty good.”
Brunet is sticking around, too. The rookie, who has four NHL games under his belt, remains in the lineup after drawing praise from Sturm following Saturday’s lopsided win over the Flyers.
“I think Brunet was the surprise, I would say. I mean, he had a good camp, and we didn’t really know how [much of a] fit fully he would be,” Sturm said.
“And he took charge, so I’m really happy about that. And also on the power play, that means a lot to be on the first unit.
Not everyone can do that.”
Brunet continued to see power-play time on Monday, splitting second-unit reps with Lohrei, according to NESN’s Adam Pellerin. McAvoy, as expected, returned to the top power-play group.
Up front, the Bruins kept everything exactly the same.
Morgan Geekie - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Marat Khusnutdinov - Fraser Minten - JJ Peterka
Casey Mittelstadt - Elias Lindholm - James Hagens
Tanner Jeannot - Matt Poitras - Mark Kastelic
Sean Kuraly
On defense, Boston’s Monday look was:
Hampus Lindholm - Charlie McAvoy
Nikita Zadorov - Will Borgen
Frederic Brunet - Mason Lohrei
Jonathan Aspirot - Connor Clifton
In Other News...
Bruins Just Got A Big Blue Line Question On This Road Trip
Charlie McAvoy is poised to rejoin the Bruins for the opening game of their four-game West Coast trip against the San Jose Sharks, giving Boston a familiar anchor back on the blue line at a time when the schedule is about to tighten up. It is the kind of return that can settle a defense group quickly, especially on the road, where matchups and pairings tend to matter even more.
The question now is which defenseman will skate next to him when the Bruins set their lineup for San Jose. Mason Lohrei, Jonathan Aspirot and Frederic Brunet are all in the mix, and the choice says plenty about how Boston wants to balance puck movement, size and reliability as the trip begins. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Push Comes With One Offensive Pressure Point
The Bruins are trying to carry some of last seasons late push into a new year, and one of the quieter themes coming out of camp is where the offense has to come from beyond the forward lines. Boston got itself into the Stanley Cup Playoffs under Marco Sturm despite a sluggish start, and the coach has been clear that the next step is building a more dangerous attack from the blue line. It is not just about puck movement or clean exits, but about defensemen making themselves part of the scoring answer more often.
Mason Lohrei has given that idea a timely boost. The young defenseman has come through with important goals in each of the last two games, helping the Bruins in wins and giving Sturm a useful example of the kind of contribution he wants to see more consistently. Whether that becomes a real trend will matter for a Boston team that is still trying to define how much offense it can expect from its back end. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Blue Line Suddenly Has A Tough McAvoy Decision
Charlie McAvoy is back for the Bruins after serving a six-game suspension, and his return comes at the start of a tough California road trip that immediately asks coach Marco Sturm to reshuffle his blue line. The first practice look had Hampus Lindholm beside McAvoy on the top pairing, with Nikita Zadorov and Will Borgen together and rookie Frederic Brunet alongside Mason Lohrei, giving Boston a new defensive alignment to sort through on the fly.
The most notable ripple from that change is the fate of Connor Clifton, who appears headed for a scratch despite leading the Bruins in ice time in the previous game. For a team trying to steady itself on the road, that is a real decision point, because McAvoys return restores a top-end presence while also forcing Boston to decide which defenseman gets squeezed out of the rotation. [Read more 🡒]