For a player that’s struggled to gain a foothold in his first season with the Bruins amidst very elevated expectations, it was a banner kind of night for both Elias Lindholm and for the Black and Gold.
The Bruins center scored his fourth goal of the season – and his first 5-on-5 score since way back on October 12 against the Los Angeles Kings – and finished with a strong multi-point effort in a comeback 4-3 overtime win for the Bruins over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday night.
It was all part of an emotional return to Calgary for the 29-year-old where he got the tribute video treatment from the Flames, and perhaps got some closure in his old home amidst a challenging transitional year for the Swedish center after signing a seven-year, $54 million-plus contract.
Quick video tribute for Elias Lindholm. Got a good reception from #Flames fans pic.twitter.com/0S8Va746Kj
— Colton Pankiw (@Coltonpankiw) December 18, 2024
The undeniable pressure has begun to pile up on Lindholm after signing the aforementioned big-money contract this past summer, and games like Tuesday night allow the two-way pivot to begin changing the tenor of the conversation a bit.
"[Elias Lindholm] had been a big part of this [Calgary Flames] organization for six years, so coming back first game…I remember my emotions last year were upside down and you didn't know what to expect," said Nikita Zadorov, of Lindholm returning home to play in Calgary for the first time since being traded to the Vancouver Canucks last season ahead of signing with the Bruins in free agency. "It feels like it's been your home for so long and now you're not there. I felt good for 'Lindy' to get that goal against his old team."
The Lindholm goal was a bit of a breakaway where the puck found an opening on Dustin Wolf after his shot attempt crossed sticks with the Calgary defender, but a fortunate bounce or two was probably due to Lindholm at this point in a difficult season. A play that wasn’t simply good fortune in any way was Lindholm taking a hit to make a play in the third period, snapping a pass cross-ice to a speeding Brad Marchand as he entered the zone.
Marchand wheeled behind the net while getting Calgary defenseman Rasmus Andersson all turned around, and then fed Marc McLaughlin in front for a slot one-timer chance. McLaughlin didn’t get all of the first attempt, but then kept going to the net and was able to pop home the loose puck rebound for the game-tying score in the third period.
Marc McLaughlin ties it for the Bruins. Great pass by Elias Lindholm to start the sequence: pic.twitter.com/c0U8dqOasE
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) December 18, 2024
The entire sequence happened because Lindholm had the impressive vision to make the cross-ice pass and gave him just his third multi-point effort of the season.
As much as it was a big homecoming for Lindholm, though, this was about the Bruins continuing to show impressive resiliency bouncing back from a pair of rough road losses in Winnipeg and Seattle to start the road trip. When they fell behind 3-1 at the end of the second period in Calgary, that was the breaking point when things started to spiral out of control in the first few games of the grueling Canadian trip.
“The second period both of those are slot chances that could be covered very easily by us wingers helping out our defensemen,” admitted Pastrnak. “We had a little bit of a breakdown, but I think the big thing was we felt like we were going to play the right way defensively. [If we did that] we could get back into the game and all of the guys believed that.
“We got a couple of goals and a huge comeback [win] on not an easy trip. You play until the last whistle every single game. [That mentality] has been here forever. We obviously went through some hard times during the season, so it’s important for us to show that we can learn [from it] and we’re not going to give up.”
Instead, the Bruins showed resolve in the third period and scored the only two goals in the final 20 minutes while outshooting Calgary by a 15-5 margin. Some of that third period tenacity and confidence can undoubtedly be traced back to a timeout called by the Bruins bench at the beginning of the second period when the B’s had just given up two goals in 27 seconds to fall down by a 2-0 score.
The message from Joe Sacco was calm, simple and direct: Get back to basic, good defensive structure covering the slot and to not give Calgary any more easy offense where another mistake could have buried the Black and Gold.
From that point on the Bruins controlled the game and allowed just a single score where Ryan Lomberg got a fortunate puck bounce onto his stick after generating something with a quick zone entry fresh off the bench. Goals from Lindholm, Morgan Geekie and McLaughlin finally tied things up in the third period and then David Pastrnak won it in overtime with a sniper shot at the end of a long shift where he initially was simply trying to get to the bench.
Pastrnasty OT game-winner 🚨 pic.twitter.com/y9tJMW5REw
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) December 18, 2024
The biggest contrast between the disastrous first two road games and Tuesday night’s comeback, however, was the iron will displayed by Boston in the third period where they cracked multiple times just last week.
“I was really proud of our effort in the third period. I thought our guys showed a lot of determination and had a ‘never say die’ attitude. Good on them because they worked for it in the third period and they did it the right way,” said Sacco. “We generated a lot of chances and when you do that in the right way the process usually takes care of itself.”
Whether it was Pastrnak’s dazzling overtime game-winner, Lindholm’s encouraging performance or even the way the team unquestionably responded to Sacco’s coaching, there was a ton to like about the comeback B’s win in Calgary. Now it’s a matter of extending that winning effort to a tough Edmonton setting and making certain that all of it becomes a trend rather than a nice two-game road segment in the middle of the season.
