After spending a long stretch of the season trying to find a home that can bring out the best in big-money center Elias Lindholm, the Boston Bruins seem to have discovered a way to unlock the top center’s game.
Part of it is Lindholm establishing some chemistry with Brad Marchand after the B’s initially thought Lindholm and David Pastrnak would be a duo at the start of this season, but the final piece in the last few games has been stalwart center Charlie Coyle shifting to right wing from his customary third line pivot spot with the Black and Gold.
Lindholm, Coyle and Marchand all exploded for third-period goals in the Bruins' 4-1 win over the Washington Capitals at TD Garden on Monday night as they headed into the Christmas break on a winning note. It was a great showing by that trio after being pieced together a couple of games ago by the Bruins coaching staff, and a very necessary offensive outburst after B’s game-breaker David Pastrnak exited the game in the second period with an upper-body injury.
“That was a good step in the right direction [for our line],” said Coyle, who scored his ninth goal of the season in the third period. “You feel good about your game when you finish a few times, but again, playing the right way, doing the right things, getting to know each other.
“We go into the mini-break [for Christmas] with a couple of wins [at home] and some things about our game to feel really good about. It feels like we’re trending in the right direction in that sense. It’s a win we should feel really good about.”
It certainly was a bit of a gut-check victory for the Black and Gold as it was a 1-1 tied game heading into the third period with the Bruins down a pair of forwards – Pastrnak exited with an injury and Oliver Wahlstrom ejected with a five-minute boarding major penalty – and Boston starting the period killing off a five-minute Capitals power play.
The Capitals were without the injured Alex Ovechkin and clearly on fumes on the second night of a back-to-back, but that was still a place where things could have awry for the B’s.
Instead, the Bruins weathered that storm by allowing just a single shot on net during the five-minute Washington man advantage, and played such stingy defense that they allowed just 11 Capitals shots on net for the game.
No matter what the circumstances, that is impressive and the lowest shots on net total allowed to an opponent by Boston in over 30 years.
The keen attention to defensive detail led way to Boston’s top line exploding in the third period as Lindholm scored the game-winner on a nifty play where all three forwards touched the puck before Lindholm finished with a double-move all alone on Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren.
That was sick, Elias Lindholm. 🥵 pic.twitter.com/kNNQhheKaG
— NHL (@NHL) December 24, 2024
Then Coyle scored two minutes late on a backhanded shovel score after Marchand smashed one off the post that landed in the net-front area.
“[Coyle] is just so big and strong on the puck and he’s very poised and a very good two-way player,” said Marchand. “So when you have Lindy out there and [Coyle] and I have developed some very good chemistry for a little while and seem to be finding it pretty quickly with Lindy as well. We have pretty chemistry with each other, and we can feed off each other, and everybody can win battles and make offensive plays with each other. So it’s working well right now.
“We just played a really smart game. We were good with the details, and we didn’t force anything and then capitalized on some turnovers and other defensive plays. That’s the way we’ve been preaching that we need to play for a while now. It’s how we’ve always had success, so I loved the way we stuck with it.”
Marchand finished things off with the empty net score to make it a 4-1 game and all three members of the Marchand-Lindholm-Coyle line had goals, and essentially rewarded the coaches for tinkering with that line over the last few games.
“Three good players. They can all defend, and they all have offensive capabilities,” said Joe Sacco of Marchand, Lindholm and Coyle skating together. “They’re veterans and experienced players, so it’s a line that we can use against other team’s top lines, and they can check and score. There’s a lot of balance there with two centermen on that line and they seem to be playing really well together right now.”
If Pastrnak is out for any long period of time then it would probably make sense to stick with this loaded-up forward line, and perhaps even to promote somebody like Matt Poitras for a post-Christmas offensive spark. The 20-year-old has seven goals and 16 points in 17 AHL games for the Providence Bruins and may eventually be getting groomed for a look as the third line center if Coyle sticks up as the right wing playing in an effective role with Marchand and Lindholm.
Either way, though, it seems to be bringing out the best in Lindholm, who has three goals and five points along with a plus-3 in his last five games.
The game-winning goal he scored against Washington was a player with poise and patience getting close to full confidence in his offensive game.
“I was kind of lucky it went into the net,” said Lindholm. “I kind of decided, kind of early, that I was going to fake and go back to backhand there, and obviously nice pass by ‘Marchy’ there, so I was all alone there with the goalie, and it was good to see it go in.”
Beyond that Lindholm was also physically engaged with the Capitals and making some enemies as Dylan Strome went looking for him at the end of the game after Marchand had cinched things with the empty netter.
Lindholm wishing the Capitals a happy holiday tonight pic.twitter.com/s5OPlLasHu
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) December 24, 2024
It remains to be seen if Coyle on the wing is a temporary thing until the Bruins can acquire another top-6 forward option, or if this is something that could become a long term look this season if the three veterans continue to perform well together. But their performance together in the win over the Capitals was a nice, unwrapped gift under the three as the NHL takes a three-day Christmas vacation with the Black and Gold now 11-4-1 in 16 games since the coaching change a month ago.
