James Hagens On Outside Looking In For Game 6 Line card

James Hagens On Outside Looking In For Game 6 Line card originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Boston Bruins fans are pretty united in wanting to see 19-year-old rookie James Hagens on the line chart heading into Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the Buffalo Sabres. 

Hages played significant minutes in both Game 1 and Game 2. However, he saw his time on ice fall into the single digits for Game 3. 

Head coach Marco Sturm has been relatively quiet as it relates to Hages' absence from the lineup. However, he did elaborate on the decision to keep him sidelined for Game 5.

"He was in the mix too. It was a Game 7 for us. I didn’t want to put him in a bad spot. He still needs to learn a lot," Sturm said. "He played great so far to this point. Hopefully, I can use him again down the stretch. But yesterday I thought I need experience going into a game like that."

Hagens has only played five career NHL games and is yet to score an NHL goal. But his electric footwork provided a notable jolt in on-ice speed when he was paired with the fleet-footed Marat Khusnutdinov. 

If Thursday's practice lines are any indication, Hagens will once again be on the outside looking in on the Game 6 line card.

Same lines for the Bruins at Thursday practice:

Khusnutdinov-Zacha-Pastrnak
Mittelstadt-Lindholm-Geekie
Steeves-Minten-Eyssimont
Jeannot-Kuraly-Kastelic
Hagens, Reichel

Aspirot-McAvoy
Lindholm-Jokiharju
Zadorov-Peeke
Lohrei-Harris

Swayman
Korpisalo— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) April 30, 2026

More NHL: Bruins Rule Out Pivotal Second-Liner For Must-Win Game 6