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Boston Bruins Look For Pastrnak, Lindholm Returns ‘As Quickly As Possible’

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The time out of the lineup is starting to accumulate for injured Boston Bruins stars David Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm, who have been out of the game for six and five games respectively with late season maladies.

Pastrnak has been out since tumbling awkwardly while battling for a puck out of a faceoff in a road win over Columbus and truth be told appeared to be battling an upper body injury for the last month before finally heading out of the lineup.

Lindholm has been out since suffering a lower body injury in a road loss to the Detroit Red Wings and exiting that game in the second period.

Both injuries aren’t considered serious and both players have resumed skating on their own in recent days, and Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said that a return for both players is important when it comes to getting tuned up for the playoffs after clinching a spot this weekend.

Certainly, Cassidy indicated the Boston Bruins aren’t being overly cautious or “resting” Pastrnak and Lindholm at this point.

“Pasta and Lindholm have been out for a bit here, but [Lindholm] hasn’t played a lot of hockey with us so I think it would benefit him playing with our guys in our system. Pasta has been playing here for a lot of years, but he’s a timing guy so he needs to play. When they’re ready, they are in,” said Cassidy. “Now if you play them in back-to-backs at the end of the year or play 3 [games] in four [days] now that’s a different story. But right now, we’d like them to get in and get playing as quickly as possible.

“I was talking to Linus [Ullmark] and he feels better. How quick that comes around remains to be seen, but it was good to see him up and feeling good. Carlo might have been a one-off quickly that was a red flag quickly and now he’s feeling good. Those are good. We’re not going to rush anybody, but [Lindholm and Pastrnak] are going in when they’re feeling good.”

Ullmark is out after getting hit in the helmet with an Erik Brannstrom blast in Thursday’s loss to the Senators, and Jeremy Swayman stepped in and made 23 saves in a winning performance on Saturday.

From a practical standpoint, the Boston Bruins need a return from Pastrnak and Lindholm as well. The Boston Bruins defensemen corps was strong in Saturday afternoon’s win over the Penguins, but has struggled with puck management, defensive zone duties and even taking penalties as of late without a big ice time guy in Lindholm.

And the Boston Bruins power play hasn’t scored a PP goal since David Pastrnak exited the lineup and is currently 0-for-25 while clearly missing the threat of his big one-timer shot that opens up time and space for everybody else on the unit when he’s out there. It isn’t known how close to they are to a return, but they get a couple more days to recover prior to hitting the road for games against the Blues and Penguins next week.

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