The Bruins are finally ready to try the pairing they’ve mostly kept in reserve: Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm on the same blue line.
That possibility comes into view after practice lines on Monday showed Lindholm with McAvoy, a notable shift for a team that has long preferred to split its two best defensemen so it could spread out the talent across the top four. With the rest of the defense holding up well during McAvoy’s suspension, head coach Marco Sturm appears ready to see what the duo can do together.
Monday’s practice groupings also hinted at a few other changes in the mix. Lindholm and Brandon Borgen, who had been a steady tandem, were separated even after they outscored opponents 6-1 while on the ice together. Their underlying numbers were less dominant than the goal total - their expected goals percentage sat much closer to the 50% mark - but they were still controlling most of their shifts.
Sturm opted to keep the younger pair of Brunet and Lohrei together instead, another sign he’s leaning into the youth movement on the back end. That combination has done plenty of damage in a small sample, outscoring opponents 3-0 and posting a 53.3% xGF. With the defense performing well overall, Sturm suddenly has options rather than problems.
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
The appeal of pairing McAvoy and Lindholm isn’t hard to see. Since Lindholm arrived in Boston, the Bruins have usually kept him apart from McAvoy, banking on balance across the top four. But when they have been united, the results have been loud.
The two have played 896 minutes together at five-on-five over the past four-and-a-half seasons, and the production has been excellent across the board. Boston has outscored opponents 51-25 with them on the ice, while the pair has posted a 56% xGF, a 57.7% SF% and a 54.9% Corsi.
There is, though, one important wrinkle. Lindholm hasn’t looked quite like the same player since the knee injury that cost him most of the 2024-25 season. The Bruins can still expect a strong partnership if they stick with McAvoy and Lindholm, but the numbers from 2022 to 2024 may not carry over exactly the same way.
The bigger question now is how long Sturm lets these new combinations breathe. Brunet and Lohrei could stick as a real pairing while the top four keeps shifting around them.
Or one of them could cool off and create an opening for Clifton to get back in. Either way, Boston’s defense is in a much better spot than it was a season ago.
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 🡒]