{"id":138284,"date":"2026-01-31T00:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138284\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T00:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:08:30","slug":"bruins-wont-have-their-two-top-centers-for-outdoor-game-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138284\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins won’t have their two top centers for outdoor game in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston Bruins\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t“I think we can hang with everyone, even with some guys out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Boston
\n\tElias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha are both expected to miss Boston’s Stadium Series game. (AP Photo\/Nick Wass)\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Conor Ryan<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 30, 2026 | 2:48 PM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

3 minutes to read<\/p>\n

The Bruins\u2019 forward corps is going to be shorthanded going into Sunday\u2019s Stadium Series game against the Lightning.<\/p>\n

Head coach Marco Sturm announced on Friday afternoon that both Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha won\u2019t travel with the team to Florida \u2014 meaning that Boston will likely be without its first and second-line centers on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means most likely they\u2019re out tomorrow, and then we\u2019ll see after that game,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cStill day-to-day, but yeah, doesn\u2019t look good for next game, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if both Lindholm or Zacha will be cleared for Boston\u2019s final game before the Olympics \u2014 a road game against Brad Marchand and the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Both Lindholm (Sweden) and Zacha (Czechia) are also set to represent their respective countries in the 2026 Winter Olympics \u2014 with Sturm adding that he doesn\u2019t believe both will miss the international tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard not, but again, we just have to follow up, day by day,\u201d Sturm said of Zacha and Lindholm missing the Olympics. \u201cPlayers are in contact with their federation and then we\u2019re kind of out of it. So as of right now, they\u2019ll plan to go, but it also could change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindholm suffered an upper-body injury during Tuesday\u2019s overtime win over Nashville Predators and missed Thursday\u2019s 6-3 win over the Flyers. Zacha was injured in that victory against Philly, as he was caught up high on a hit from Nicolas Deslauriers and did not return midway through the second period.<\/p>\n

Losing both pivots stands as a sizable setback for a Bruins team that has won 12 out of its last 15 games entering Sunday\u2019s showdown in Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lindholm has posted 11 goals and 37 points across 43 games with Boston this season, while Zacha has also recorded 37 points (15 goals, 22 assists) over 54 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Sturm, the greatest loss with both Lindholm and Zacha on the shelf might revolve around the top power-play unit \u2014 where Lindholm skates at the \u201cbumper\u201d position and Zacha is usually operating at the netfront.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boston is currently fourth in the NHL in power play percentage at 26.8 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dealt with it early on this season where we had a lot of injuries,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cThis time, I feel like it\u2019s a little bit different, because they\u2019re our number one and two centers. \u2026 I\u2019m not really worried about five-on-five, but it also affects our power play, because both our guys are on it, and they\u2019re big pieces for us. Face-offs starts there right away. Those are the guys on breakouts who come from behind. So there\u2019s more to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we confident in the other guys doing a good job? Yes.\u00a0That\u2019s something we have to overcome, and we have no other choice. But on the other side, I do feel good about it, because of the way we\u2019re playing right now, and the structure we put in place. I think we can hang with everyone, even with some guys out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sturm noted that the Bruins likely won\u2019t make any roster moves before heading down to Florida, meaning that Boston\u2019s four centers going into Sunday will likely be Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov, Matt Poitras, and Sean Kuraly.<\/p>\n

A line of Minten, Viktor Arvidsson, and Casey Mittelstadt dominated the Flyers on Thursday, outscoring Philadelphia, 3-0, in under 11 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together.<\/p>\n

A shifty skater like Khusnutdinov has also found plenty of success with David Pastrnak this season \u2014 with Boston outscoring opponents, 22-10, when that duo has been out on the ice together at 5-on-5 play (312:16).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n

Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Bruins “I think we can hang with everyone, even with some guys out.\u201d\u00a0 Elias Lindholm and Pavel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-138284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}