Barring something unexpected between now and puck drop, the Bruins will welcome defenseman Henri Jokiharju back to their lineup Tuesday night against the Kraken.
The belief that Jokiharju is ready to go comes after Bruins head coach Marco Sturm noted that Jokiharju looked ‘pretty good’ at Monday’s practice in Seattle, and with Jokiharju officially added back to Boston’s active roster on Tuesday.
The Bruins have been without Jokiharju since the Finnish-born defenseman suffered a lower-body injury late in Boston’s Black Friday loss to the Rangers back on Nov. 28.
Prior to the injury, Jokiharju had recorded six assists and a minus-5 rating, along with 19 blocks and 13 hits, in 25 games for the B’s this season.
Best utilized in a third-pairing role, Jokiharju’s expected return does give the Bruins some greater balance, as it will allow the Bruins to put lefties and righties on their natural sides. With the right-shooting Jokiharju down, and with Victor Söderström returned to Providence just before the Christmask break, the Bruins have had to put the lefty-shooting Jonathan Aspirot and Mason Lohrei on the right side.
Now, they’ll be able to slot Jokiharju behind Charlie McAvoy and Andrew Peeke on the right side, while both Aspirot and Lohrei can stay on the left side.
In addition to the Jokiharju activation, the club also placed defenseman Hampus Lindholm on the injured reserve. The decision to place Lindholm on the injured reserve is hardly a shock based on the word from Sturm following Monday’s skate.
“It’s not going to be a day-to-day thing,” Sturm said when asked about Lindholm’s injury status. “Hopefully it’s not too long, but he’s definitely going to be out for a little bit. We’ll have to do more testing when we’re back in Boston so we can go from there.”
With Lindholm on injured reserve, the expectation is that he will miss at least a week of games for the B’s, though that’s not a shock given what they said about his injury.
“We just had our first appointment [Sunday] and we’re going to wait until we get back because there’s nothing we can do right now,” Sturm said when discussing Lindholm’s injury timeline. “And then we’ll let our doctors decide our next steps.”
The Bruins head into Tuesday’s game riding a three-game point streak, and have captured five of a possible eight points on the road trip. But they’ll definitely have their hands full against a Kraken club that’s shown signs of finally putting it all together, as Seattle comes into this one riding an eight-game point streak (7-0-1).