Elias Lindholm finally started scoring again last week. But a look beyond the box score reveals empty netters, garbage goals, and the like.

Tuesday night felt different.

Just 13 seconds into the third period of a tie game, on the Bruins’ first rush near the end of a power play, Lindholm made a subtle fake toward the middle to buy some space, then sniped it far-side past Jake Oettinger to put the Bruins back on top 3-2, after they’d coughed up a two-goal lead in the second. It marked Lindholm’s fifth goal in his last six games, and perhaps the most legit tally yet. The Bruins center has also built himself back up to a 62-point pace projected over 82 games, as he’s now up to 17 goals and 47 points in 62 contests.

What’s been the key to Lindholm’s turnaround? He and his head coach laid out multiple factors. But for Lindholm itself, he’s stopped overthinking things and used his demotion to the third line to motivate himself to match his more productive teammates in the top-6.

“I just try to keep it simple and try to be around the net a lot,” Lindholm said. “I think our line has been playing some good hockey. The top-2 lines have been playing some good hockey and winning us a lot of games. It’s time for us to step up and we’re doing a pretty good job.”

Head coach Marco Sturm, meanwhile, believes Lindholm has settled down in his current role, and is also healthy after playing through an injury for both the Bruins and Team Sweden in the Olympics.

“I feel like he has more freedom now, and he plays more his game,” Sturm said. “He’s definitely healthy now, back to being healthy. Don’t forget that he was going through the Olympics not 100%. I use him on a lot of draws, PK, power play. He does a lot for me. And I just like that now his shots are going in, too. So, I like him, I really do, and not just today, I think for the last little while, he’s been pretty solid.”

Lindholm is no doubt an expensive third-line center at $7.75 million, and he’s signed through the next five seasons at age 31. A handful of good games won’t undo the reality of that contract. But the Bruins have been able to make up for that by putting two promising young forwards (Marat Khusnutdinov and Fraser Minten) on the top line with David Pastrnak for a combined $1.74M.

But between Lindholm’s faceoff skills–his 56.2% rate is eighth-best among forwards with at least 1,000 draws this season–and Sturm’s confidence deploying him in a variety of situations, there’s still value to be extracted here. The veteran centerman is quickly putting his midseason cold streak behind him, and it feels like his coach has pushed the right buttons to get him going.

It’s come at a great time for the Bruins, who have surged to a 98% probability to make the playoffs (via @JFreshHockey) after a four-game win streak. Most of the roster is clicking and dictating games against high-level competition at home, and they’ve shown resilience amid adversity on the road.

If it took making Lindholm the third center to get this kind of production out of him, so be it. The B’s suddenly look primed to make serious noise in April, and they’ll take this any way they can get it.

Matt, a North Andover, Massachusetts native, has been with The Sports Hub since 2010. Growing up the son of Boston University All-American and Melrose High School hall-of-fame hockey player Steve Dolloff, sports was always a part of his life. After attending Northeastern University, Matt focused his love of sports on writing, extensively writing about all four major Boston teams. He also is a co-host of the Sports Hub Underground podcast and is a regular on-air contributor on the Sports Hub. Matt writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.