Bruins make their decision on Hampus Lindholm
The mystery surrounding the status of Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm and a potential return to action had by all means engulfed Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco.
Leading up to the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the hope and expectation was that the Bruins would get Lindholm, who was injured in a Nov. 12 win over the Blues, back in their lineup. Hell, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney went on TNT and by all means said as much in an interview with Kenny Albert and Brian Boucher, citing Lindholm as a reason why the B’s weren’t throwing in the towel on the season.
But Lindholm took a step back on the practice front upon the team’s return to practice, and was not in the lineup for Saturday’s overtime loss to the Ducks. And now it’s beginning to look like a lost season for Lindholm, with Sweeney noting that it’s unlikely that he’ll get back on a game rink this season.
“Hampus, unfortunately, is unlikely to return for the rest of this season,” Sweeney said following Sunday’s practice at Warrior ice Arena. “As everybody knows, he had a significant knee injury, fractured his patella, [and] had surgery … He’s going to have a follow up next week to remove a little bit of the hardware because it created some irritation as he was going through the rehab again.”
The latest update on Lindholm comes with the Bruins still on the outside looking in in the Eastern Conference playoff race, and with Charlie McAvoy also on the shelf.
The Bruins were always careful with how they discussed Lindholm’s recovery and status — even when he was practicing, he was never upgraded beyond ‘week to week’ by the Bruins — and it feels like this decision from the Black and Gold comes with the Bruins thinking big picture more than anything else.
“I think we were pretty open and really didn’t want to put a timeline on it because of the complexity of the injury,” Sweeney admitted. “The healing process has gone long and gone well and he’ll have no setbacks moving forward. That being said, it’s going to take a little more time for him to heal naturally, and we just don’t want to put a timeline on on when he’ll be back to 100%. So I think it’s it’s more constructive to allow him to to not continue to push the way he had been pushing and to let it feel a little more naturally.”
Lindholm, who will finish his season with three goals and seven points in 17 games, is in the third year of an eight-year contract that runs through 2029-30 and comes with a $6.5 million cap hit.
