PITTSBURGH — It was obvious that some Boston Bruins players were going to need to step up with Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy shelved until November while they were working their way back from respective offseason surgeries.

It wasn’t necessarily going to be one person stepping into the void, but more a team-wide effort that’s seen 16 different players score goals in the first 10 games of the season and has seen a remarkable spread of offense behind David Pastrnak’s 18 points scored in less than a month. But there was some solace that things would be okay on Boston’s back end without McAvoy because Hampus Lindholm had all the abilities to step into a No. 1 defenseman role for a couple of months.

That’s exactly what has happened as Lindholm has been a “dominant” impact player over the first month with Tuesday night’s four-point, overtime goal effort vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins as the lamp-lighting exclamation point at the end of the sentence.

That made Lindholm the first defenseman to record a four-point outing in the NHL this season and the fourth Bruins blue liner in the past 30 years to notch four points in a game, joining Ray Bourque (7 times), Torey Krug (twice) and Matt Grzelcyk (Jan. 10, 2022) in that exclusive blue line category.

“It’s great to see the resilience,” said Lindholm. “People are working for each other [and we’re] super stoked about the team win. We know we’ve got guys who can score on this team. We just have to stick with it. You don’t want to be down, 5-2, to a team like Pittsburgh but it shows a lot of character the way we came back.

“Overall, I’ve been feeling pretty confident about my hockey game. It’s a 60-minute hockey game so you just stick with it. I saw the defenseman fall back a little bit, so I’m just trying to shoot through him. It was really fun to see it go in.”

At this point, the 28-year-old Lindholm is second on the Bruins with 11 points in 10 games and has three goals and eight assists while logging 24:19 of ice time per game while more than holding things together without McAvoy around.

In fact, one could argue that Lindholm is the MVP over the first month for the Boston Bruins while the team is off to an amazing 9-1-0 start to the season that has them atop the Atlantic Division, and the best team in the NHL. All apologies to David Pastrnak, who has off to one of the best starts of his NHL career while helping to carry the team, but most nights Lindholm has just been that darn solid moving pucks, playing all situations and logging tons of hard ice time while maintaining an elite level of play.

“I just have so much confidence in him,” said Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery. “I just roll him over the boards as much as I can because he just believes in himself, and he can make plays. He might be the most underrated defenseman in the league…he’s been phenomenal. I don’t know any other words except he’s pretty dominant out there.”

Certainly, Lindholm was dominant in the overtime session with the game on the line when he zoomed past everybody with the puck and snapped a perfect top corner shot while using a defender as an effective screen on Pens goalie Tristan Jarry. Imagining slotting McAvoy in as the No. 1 defenseman and a Norris Trophy caliber guy combined with Lindholm and the rest of Boston’s defense becomes a rich getting richer situation.

That has Boston Bruins players, and coaches, understandably excited about what’s to come when both “stud” defensemen are out there together.

“He’s a complete stud,” said Montgomery a couple of weeks ago in a tight win over the Minnesota Wild. “He’s been a stud since day one and we’re lucky to have him, and then we’re going to get another stud back in a month so, knock on wood, we stay healthy, and when those two other studs get back in the lineup, I’m excited to see what we’re going to be able to roll out.”

Looking back in hindsight, Don Sweeney’s ability to engineer the trade with Anaheim for Hampus Lindholm last season and then sign him to a long term, reasonable extension may end up being the linchpin move that allows this team to bridge toward the next generation as veteran guys like David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron age out in the next couple of years.

Obviously, everybody will need to stay healthy once the Boston Bruins get all their bodies back in working order, but it probably shouldn’t even surprise that Lindholm has been stellar given his previous body of work, sometimes underrated because it was being done in Anaheim.

“It’s a position I’ve been in kind of my whole career,” said Lindholm back to reporters in September about stepping up in McAvoy’s absence. “I’ve been fortunate that I’ve played big minutes in Anaheim and take responsibility. So it’s nothing new, and any time you can have (McAvoy) in the lineup, we’re a better team. Hopefully he gets back here soon, but we got a lot of good guys in this locker room who can step it up.”

The Boston Bruins do have a lot of good guys in their locker room capable of stepping, and many of them have over the first month. But they only have one other D-man aside from McAvoy capable of stretches of dominant play and Lindholm has been that guy and then some in the opening month when the B’s needed him most.