It was unmistakable hearing the yelling and screaming from a jubilant Viktor Arvidsson on the ice after he scored his first goal of the season in Boston’s 3-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche at TD Garden on Saturday afternoon.
The Swedish winger scored on a second effort puck after his initial wrap attempt around the post got denied by Scott Wedgewood, so he instead collected the loose puck rebound and bounced the puck into the net off the goalie’s stick.
Viktor Arvidsson scores his first as a Boston Bruin
— NESN (@NESN) October 25, 2025
And lets out a battle cry 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/s213PhOdOA
It was his first goal in his 10th game of the season as the Bruins brought him in to be a top-6 forward and hope to get something close to the 20-goal production that he managed for a seven year stretch with the Predators and Kings prior to going to Edmonton last season.
The 32-year-old Arvidsson now has a goal and four points in 10 games, along with an even plus/minus rating, but says that the chemistry is gelling with Casey Mittelstadt and Pavel Zacha on the second line after Zacha was moved back to the center position.
It’s been an okay start for the trio, but they seem to have picked it up since Mittelstadt was a healthy scratch in Utah at the end of Boston’s West Coast road trip.
He told NESN during the first intermission that moving Mittelstadt off center has freed up the offensive-minded forward to create a little bit more with the puck, and that was the case on the scoring play as he got deep down the ice for a loose puck that turned into a score after Mason Lohrei partially fanned on the point shot.
“I think I’ve been all over it and shooting a lot and it was nice to see one finally go in,” said Arvidsson. “I thought our line (with Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt) was playing good in the last three or four games. We’d been creating and scoring. It just hasn’t been me who has had the last touch, so it was nice to have it today.
The 5-foot-10, 181-pound Arvidsson is not the biggest, or the fastest, and his skill level doesn’t jump out at you when he’s skating on the ice. But his tenacity and his courageous play as a smaller wing actually sets him apart on many levels and puts him in great positions for offense along with a lot of physical pounding given the areas of the ice he will venture to on a regular basis.
“He’s a battler. If you know him, he’s doesn’t hide it when he doesn’t score, so I’m glad he found the net,” said Marco Sturm. “So, not just him but hopefully the whole team can just enjoy a glass of wine tonight and relax a little bit and come back to work tomorrow.”
The Bruins have to be hoping that it’s the first of many goals for Arvidsson, who managed just 21 goals over the last two seasons while battling back problems and a stacked Oilers lineup where there wasn’t as much opportunity for him. They brought him in for the final year of his contract hoping for an offensive boost and it helped make a difference in a must-have win to break their losing streak this weekend.
ONE TIMERS
• The Bruins have placed Hampus Lindholm on injured reserve (lower body) after playing one game on the road in Colorado after getting injured following the opening two games of the regular season. In his absence, the Bruins have called up journeyman D-man Jonathan Aspirot that gives them another healthy, usable body as they travel up to Ottawa for Monday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators.
“We look at it every day, so we’re not really kidding [about the Lindholm injury],” said Sturm prior to Saturday’s win over the Avs. “But again, both sides have to feel really comfortable. We thought another day or two, I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes. Sometimes it feels good and sometimes it’s not there yet. That’s why we all have to be patient, unfortunately.”
The Monday night road games on Monday kicks off a stretch of four games in six days, including some winnable games against the Senators, Islanders and Sabres along with a challenging home matinee against the Hurricanes, and it feels like there isn’t much of a window to drop Lindholm in there if he’s battling a nagging injury.
On the other hand, if Lindholm is battling anything in any way related to last season’s kneecap injury then this continues to be a big-time concern for the Black and Gold as the DNP’s mount for the workhorse defenseman. The Bruins have maintained that the current issue isn’t related to last season’s knee woes for Lindholm, but the suspicion about what exactly is going on with him mounts as his absence looms over the team’s back end.
*The whispers continue to be there about possible trade scenarios with Pavel Zacha, as Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman reported over the weekend that the Vancouver Canucks have heavy interest in the Bruins center.
"I think it's been going on for some quite some time and it’s going back all the way to the summer,” said Friedman. “This has been on again, off again for the Canucks and the Bruins. Teams are looking for centers, and Boston doesn’t have to do anything here that they don’t want to do. But this has been a dance for the Canucks and some other teams to see if they can pry Zacha out of there.”
Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the Vancouver #Canucks have interest in Bruins centre Pavel Zacha
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) October 26, 2025
🎥: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/fUyoOj6dnP
Friedman didn’t mention what the Canucks, or other teams were offering, but the price would be high for a player that’s got term on his contract with Boston and sounds like a player that is in demand around the league if he was made available.
•Interesting to hear Morgan Geekie really get honest after this week’s stunning loss to the Anaheim Ducks where Boston’s defense got exposed, and it seemed to really push the Bruins to have some honest conversations about where the team currently sits in terms of work ethic, focus and paying attention to detail.
It feels like last season’s collapse, and the subsequent fire sale at the NHL trade deadline, is something that hasn’t been forgotten and drifted to the forefront amidst a rough six-game losing streak for the Black and Gold.
“It’s tough to be glass half full to be honest with you. Everybody is sick of it in here. The new guys, the guys that have been here and went through it last year and saw everybody get shipped out at the deadline,” said Geekie, who has now scored goals in each of the last three games for the Bruins and notched the game-winner on Saturday afternoon against the Avalanche. “We’ve got to find a way to put out fires better, or just have guys doing their jobs just a little bit better.
“You see friends walk out the door because guys aren’t doing their jobs, it seems, and that’s the reality.
"I love every single guy in here and our leadership group is great and the team we have is sustainable. But when we get away from [the way we’re supposed to play] and have lapses, it seems like it happens over and over and over again. The issues lie in here and if we can’t turn it around, then I think we know what is going to happen to this team.”
The words are unflinchingly tough, but it’s also the kind of real assessment and sentiment that shows true leadership is happening in that Bruins dressing room.
