BOSTON -- The Bruins earned an impressive 3-2 win over the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night, and their new defenseman Hampus Lindholm played a huge role in the outcome.
It was actually Lindholm's first game in nine days. His last appearance came as a member of the Anaheim Ducks in a loss to the New York Rangers on March 15. He didn't play in the last three Ducks games before his trade to the Bruins last Saturday.
Lindholm has come to Boston as advertised. He's a smooth-skating defenseman who moves the puck well and makes good decisions in all three zones. He's almost always in the right position and isn't afraid to throw around his 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame to win puck battles.
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The Swedish defenseman even got on the scoresheet with his first point as a Bruin.
Here's a deeper look at how Lindholm fared during his first game in Black and Gold.
Stats
Boston Bruins
Goals: 0
Assists: 1
Shots: Four
Ice time: 23:26
Lindholm picked up his first assist with the Bruins on David Pastrnak's second-period goal. The whole sequence started with Lindholm retrieving the puck behind the net, showing great strength to ward off Lightning forward Brandon Hagel and maintaining puck possession. Lindholm made a crisp pass to Erik Haula, who sent the puck up ice and off the boards as Pastrnak skated on to it.
A couple minutes after Pastrnak's goal, Lindholm led the rush up ice, drove to the net and nearly earned another assist with a gorgeous pass to Trent Frederic, who wasn't able to convert.
The Bruins held a 22-11 advantage in shot attempts, a 13-4 edge in shots on net, a 11-5 lead in scoring chances and outscored the Lightning 2-0 during Lindholm's 14:13 of 5-on-5 ice time. Put simply, the ice was often tilted in Boston's favor with Lindholm on the ice.
So far, so good.
Teammates and Opposition
Lindholm began the game, as expected, alongside Charlie McAvoy on the first pairing. This duo played 12:37 of 5-on-5 ice time together. The Bruins had a 21-9 edge in shot attempts, a 12-2 advantage in shots and a 10-3 lead in scoring chances with this pairing on the ice at 5-on-5.
These numbers are even more impressive when you consider McAvoy and Lindholm mostly played against the Lightning's top line of Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. That's one of the most talented trios in the world, but they failed to generate much offense against Boston's No. 1 pairing.
This is what the Bruins likely envisioned when they made the trade for Lindholm. Putting him alongside one of the league's top five/seven defensemen in McAvoy creates a kind of super pairing capable of driving puck possession and scoring chances at a high rate, even against quality competition.
The B's will need many more of these kinds of performances from the Lindholm-McAvoy tandem if they're going to make a deep run in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Special Teams
Lindholm played on the second power-play unit and logged 4:26 of ice time with the man advantage. Boston's power play as a whole played terrible -- the absence of Patrice Bergeron was a huge factor.
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Lindholm also saw 1:54 of penalty kill time. He did a nice job retrieving the puck in the defensive zone during a first-period penalty kill and carrying it up ice to begin a foray into the attacking zone that resulted in a shot on net.
The Bruins will use Lindholm in all types of situations, including special teams, and Thursday's game was a prime example of that.