Lindholm Questionable For Boston Bruins With Illness

BRIGHTON, MA – Boston Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm has played in every game for the B’s thus far this season, but that may change on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings. Lindholm was sent home from the Bruins practice facility on Thursday morning when he wasn’t feeling well and is a question mark vs. the Kings after missing morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena.

If Lindholm isn’t feeling well enough to play against Los Angeles then that would pave the way for the return of Jakub Zboril, who hasn’t played since a rough turnover in the Nov. 23 road loss to the Florida Panthers right before Thanksgiving.

“[Lindholm] came in not feeling great this morning, so we sent him home. We’ll see if he’s able to play later tonight,” said Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery. “For [Zboril] it’s going to be the excitement to play an NHL game again. Sometimes I think we forget how exciting it is to play in front of our Bruins fans here at TD Garden, so I think he’ll be really good tonight if he gets that opportunity.”

It goes without saying that it’s a big time absence if Lindholm is missing from the Boston back end for this one.

Zboril hasn’t played in over three weeks and has been clamoring for the chance to get back into the Black and Gold lineup to erase the memory of that turning point play after being benched directly in its aftermath.

“Not being in the lineup is really tough, but I have to keep doing my job and staying ready for games. I feel like I’m ready for [Thursday night],” said Zboril, who has one goal and a minus-1 in 13 games with 13:34 of ice time per game for the Boston Bruins this season. “It’s not easy, especially for me when I’ve always struggled when I make a mistake and I don’t get that [next] shift right away. I keep thinking about it, so I have to manage my emotions out there tonight. But I think I can handle it.”

In other lineup news, veteran center David Krejci will be back in the B’s lineup after missing the last two games with a lower body injury and will be centering Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak in a reforming of the Czech Line.

4️⃣6️⃣ back in the mix 🙌 pic.twitter.com/niVb29xmmM

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 15, 2022

Here’s the projected Boston Bruins lineup based on Thursday’s morning skate:

Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk

Zacha-Krejci-Pastrnak

Hall-Coyle-Frederic

Foligno-Nosek-Greer

Forbort-McAvoy

Grzelcyk-Carlo

Zboril-Clifton

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