BOSTON — When the goal light went on, Elias Lindholm looked more relieved than joyful. The Bruins center kissed his right glove, closed his eyes and then looked skyward.
It was a simple goal. He gathered the rebound of a Brad Marchand shot off of Karel Vejmelka’s pads and tucked it behind the goalie on the power play.
But after a 40-day goal drought, it lifted a sizeable weight off his shoulders.
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After signing a lucrative eight-year contract with Boston during the offseason, Lindholm’s inability to find chemistry with David Pastrnak and offensive ineffectiveness made him the face of the Bruins’ much-publicized early-season woes. The heat was turned up even higher when Boston fired Jim Montgomery on Tuesday.
But after an emotionally challenging couple of days in an already trying season, Lindholm scored the game’s only goal in Thursday’s win that made a winner of the Bruins and new coach Joe Sacco and relieved — at least temporarily — some of that pressure.
“It was great to see Lindy pop one in tonight,” Sacco said. “You could see the guys were really excited for him on the bench. … It was big for him. It was nice to see the way the group reacted. Him being on of the new guys they wanted to show him how much they care about him.”
Lindholm shared their excitement.
“It was huge. Obviously, it’s been a tough couple of games or a stretch here for me. I haven’t played good enough. Hopefully, that can help a little bit and, and give some confidence,” he said. “It’s been a lot going on. It’s unfortunate that stuff like this happens. It’s kind of a little wake-up call that we obviously haven’t played good enough in front of our fans and, and for Monty.”
Lindholm admitted he’s been beating himself up over the struggles.
“We haven’t played good enough,” he said. “I’m hard on myself. I’m probably the hardest one out there on myself and I know when I play bad. I know when I play good, and there’s obviously been too many bad games for me this year. It’s obviously a time for reset and hopefully, I can build some confidence and help the team more.”
