The Boston Bruins are a much better team with both Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm in their lineup. A revelatory statement, to say the least, that an NHL team is better with two elite defenders in their lineup than without them, but it still bears discussion. With McAvoy set to miss an extended period of time due to recent facial surgery after the 27-year-old took a puck to the face, the Bruins are facing an uphill battle until the cornerstone blueliner can return.
The 2025-26 season was looking like it could be one of McAvoy’s best, especially after he started the season with 14 points through 19 games while averaging 23:46 of ice time. The Bruins, against all odds, were also rolling prior to this injury, including the game against the Montreal Canadiens, which McAvoy ultimately exited.
A jarring statistic for the Bruins is that, with both McAvoy and Lindholm in their lineup, the Bruins are 9-2-0 this season. Without them, the Bruins are just 3-8-0. This essentially flips those numbers on their head; while the raw totals obviously can’t paint the full picture, the results are still the results. There’s also evidence to suggest that losing McAvoy or Lindholm for even a short stretch is extremely damaging, dating back to last season, with the Bruins having their worst season in nearly two decades in a year that saw Lindholm appear in just 17 games.
The Burden Falls on Lindholm
Another thing to consider is the burden this injury places on Lindholm now that he’s the lone top-pairing defender available. Lindholm himself has dealt with injuries in recent seasons, and while he’s capable of handling 24 to 26 minutes a night, it’s not ideal for the Bruins to lean on him this heavily for an extended stretch. This is especially true when the team was already shuffling defenders near the bottom of the rotation and hasn’t gotten consistently solid play from Mason Lohrei or Henri Jokiharju yet this season.
When both Lindholm and McAvoy are healthy, they stabilize the entire defensive group by allowing the coaching staff to slot everyone else more appropriately. Without McAvoy, Lindholm’s minutes spike, his matchups get tougher, and the Bruins lose the luxury of sheltering certain pairings or deploying them in more favorable situations. This ripple effect impacts the forwards as well; breakouts become harder, offensive-zone starts decrease, and the Bruins spend more time chasing the game than dictating it. Lindholm is good enough to withstand that workload, but it’s unreasonable to expect him to mask the entire blue line’s shortcomings on his own.
Without McAvoy, the Bruins are going to need to dig deep and figure out how to play complementary hockey for a full 60 minutes. Though the Bruins have lost three of their last four games, including back-to-back games since McAvoy’s injury, it’s important to note that the compete level in their most recent game against the Anaheim Ducks was about as good as it gets in a loss.
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The real test for the Bruins right now is whether they can persevere regardless of a significant loss like McAvoy; the players proving to one another that they’ll show up and battle every night goes a long way. It also goes a long way in telling management where the team stands by the time the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline rolls around. If players want to stay and compete rather than be deemed a selling team once again, they’ll have to prove that they can do so even through adversity.
The team’s next test comes Friday night against the Los Angeles Kings.
