{"id":555131,"date":"2026-04-18T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T09:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:00:26","slug":"bruins-sound-like-theyve-made-playoff-decision-with-james-hagens-98-5-the-sports-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555131\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins sound like they’ve made playoff decision with James Hagens – 98.5 The Sports Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruins rookie James Hagens<\/a> was given just two games to impress Marco Sturm. <\/p>\n

And it sounds like he did exactly that, with the 19-year-old expected to in Boston’s Game 1 lineup against the Sabres this Sunday<\/a> based on Sturm’s latest comments. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t decide yet, but there\u2019s a pretty good chance I would say that James might play Game 1,” Sturm said Friday. “It\u2019s just the last two games, he\u2019s given me a lot of excitement. I was not sure where he was at with this level. But he did a pretty job with the puck, managing the puck, playing without the puck, never got in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his two-game audition with the Bruins, Hagens posted one assist, one hit, and landed two shots on goal while averaging 14:33 per game. And though the point came in his debut, Hagens’ second game was actually more impressive, as the seventh overall pick from last year’s draft showed some dogged determination on the forecheck and with his ability to extend and\/or create plays out of thin air. <\/p>\n

Playing on a line with Fraser Minten<\/a> and Marat Khusnutdinov, this new-look third line (and a true ‘Kid Line’ with all due respect to David Pastrnak) has given Sturm a potential game-breaking threat of speed and skill against the Sabres. Speaking on Friday, Sturm acknowledged that there seems to be a chemistry between the three, and that ‘good things’ happened when they were out there. <\/p>\n

Hagens, meanwhile, told 985TheSportsHub.com that he really focused on his wall play as something he wanted to improve from Game 81 to Game 82 in Boston. That, for what it’s worth, was clearly something noticed by Pastrnak when No. 88 was asked about Hagens following Tuesday’s victory over the Devils. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe skill amount is amazing, and even the wall plays I recognized,” Pastrnak said. “As a winger, I remember me coming in the league, I had really tough time with wall plays and winning those battles and he made a bunch of really good breakout plays. <\/p>\n

“It just speaks to the skills he has.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

One ‘bummer’ from Hagens’ first two games in the NHL came with the Bruins failing to get a single power-play opportunity over that 120-minute sample. That’s been highlighted as an area where the youthful Hagens could bring some pop to the Boston lineup. But the Bruins gotta get on the power play to see it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s his biggest strength is to be on the power play, so it would stupid not to use him [there],” Sturm confirmed Friday. “We\u2019ll see if he makes a difference or not. But if he plays, he will definitely be on the power play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, he’s in, and they’re gonna ask him to make a difference. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruins rookie James Hagens was given just two games to impress Marco Sturm. And it sounds like he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[62716,95,201,5,373,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-555131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-2026-bruins-playoffs","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-devils","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-james-hagens","13":"tag-new-jersey","14":"tag-new-jersey-devils","15":"tag-newjersey","16":"tag-newjerseydevils","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116424895517107908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}