Elias Lindholm’s offensive numbers are not where he nor anyone else would like them to be. Snake-bitten around the net, he had two goals and seven assists in 15 games going into Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

But the 29-year-old Lindholm, who signed a seven-year deal worth $7.75 million per season on July 1, made his presence felt in a big way in the Bruins’ 4-3 overtime win over the Calgary Flames on Thursday. After an offensive zone faceoff loss, Lindholm jumped the Calgary defenseman behind the net, stripped him of the puck and fed Brad Marchand out front for the game-winner.

How much can big moments like that catapult a player back into being the player that he can be.?

“For offensive players like him, who are gifted? A lot,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “You make a play and you’re rewarded for your hard work intensity on puck battles and when you turn around and make the play, I think sometimes it just calms you down when you get the puck. He seems like he’s not naturally comfortable right now offensively. He and I spoke about it a couple of games ago. It just happens. He comes here and he expects a lot from himself. He is a really gifted player in this league and we expect him to be a leader for us and have an impact every night. And he wants to do that. The pressure players that are gifted put on themselves is immense.”

Montgomery had tried playing Lindholm with Marchand in Carolina when he changed all his forward units and the results across the board were bad, leading to the B’s rock-bottom 8-2 loss. He went back to the lines he had after that, but then he changed them again. Chemistry seems to be taking hold, especially on the top two units, with Pavel Zacha centering David Pastrnak and Lindholm skating with Marchand.

Both Marchand and Lindholm feel good about the budding chemistry.

“It felt good. Obviously we had a couple of chances. We probably could have put one or two in before but we’ll take the overtime winner and build from there,” said Lindholm.

“I’d been playing with him a little bit back and forth for a couple of games. He’s a great player and he’s a pretty easy player to play with. (Right wing Justin Brazeau) was a big presence there as well, making plays.”

The tandem had played some penalty kill and 4-on-4 situations and now it looks like they’ll get some extended time 5-on-5.

“He’s a very, very smart, he reads the ice very well and makes a lot fo good plays I definitely think that we’re starting to understand where each other goes,” said Marchand after Thursday’s game. “There’s always room for improvement. The more practice time you get and the more reps you get together, the more we’ll build it. But with the way Monty coaches, he changes the lines a lot so he could change it any point. But you’re always trying to find chemistry as quick as you can with linemates.”

Asked about his propensity to change lines, Montgomery rightly pointed out that he’s kept his units together this year longer than he has in the past. Part of that was trying to allow chemistry between Lindholm and David Pastrnak to grow. He finally gave up on it for the time being. Though he’ll still make in-game changes when things aren’t working, he said Saturday morning that he plans to give these groupings time.

“If we want to build chemistry, we’ve got to leave them together,” said Montgomery.

Lindholm, meanwhile, had gotten behind the 8-ball in training camp when he suffered an undisclosed injury on the first day and missed a good chunk of camp. Not great for a player’s assimilation to a new team.

“Obviously it wasn’t ideal, but that’s behind us,” Lindholm said. “I would have liked to have been a part of that camp and the way everything went, it was hard for me to do anything on or off the ice. That’s what was the most frustrating part, that you really couldn’t do anything. In that regard, I felt I was behind.”

Now he hopes he can put that slow start behind him.

“I’m here to help this team and I’m here to produce,” said Lindholm. “When that doesn’t happen, it’s obviously frustrating. You want to get back to help the team in that way. Hopefully (the game-winning play on Thursday) can help a little bit. I had a lot of chances last game. If it keeps going like this, they’re probably going to go in sooner or later.”…

Trent Frederic has not had the kind of year that people were hoping for expecting after he posted career highs in goals and assists last year (18-22-40). He had one goal and two assists and nothing in the past six games while being minus-10 on the season. He’s now skating on fourth line with Mark Kastelic and Johnny Beecher.

Montgomery has always been high on Frederic’s abilities and he still is.

“I absolutely believe in Trent Frederic,” said Montgomery. “He’s awesome to work with, he’s a hard-working, conscientious, caring young man and I just think when things don’t go well, he cares about the team, not only his personal success but the lack of team success affects him. When that happens, sometimes players think too much. And when we think too much, we’re slow. Not just him, if you look at our team lately, I think we’re starting to see some good signs in our transitional game and I thought Trent’s best game, transitionally, since the first game of the year was last game.”…

Andrew Peeke, who suffered an upper body injury in Toronto on Tuesday, skated on his own before practicing but Montgomery still termed him as “week-to-week.”