"Come playoff time, you don't want to change anything. You want to be the same guy."
In an ideal scenario for Jim Montgomery and the Bruins, both Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman will entrench themselves between the pipes during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But even though Boston’s bench boss hasn’t steered away from talk of keeping his goalie rotation intact for the postseason, the Bruins still need to make the call as to who earns the nod in Game 1 next month.
For most of the 2023-24 season, Swayman has supplanted Ullmark as Boston’s best option in net — with the first-time All-Star poised to usher in another postseason run at TD Garden.
But with the playoffs just four weeks away, has the momentum now shifted back in Ullmark’s favor for a Game 1 start?
It’d be a surprising reshuffle, given that Ullmark’s current spot on Boston’s roster might only be a byproduct of the veteran goalie’s no-trade list.
But it’s tough to ignore the stats, especially since Ullmark emerged unscathed from the trade deadline.
After Boston’s 6-2 win over the Senators on Tuesday, Ullmark has now won three straight games since the deadline, posting a .956 save percentage over that stretch. Over that same period, Swayman is 1-2-0 with an .848 save percentage — relinquishing 12 goals over nine periods of hockey.
A longer sample size doesn’t exactly augment the narrative that Ullmark is the leader in the clubhouse for the Game 1 nod.
Ullmark’s overall numbers since Boston returned from the All-Star break in early February may not exactly leap off the page — with the reigning Vezina Trophy winner going 4-1-5 with a .913 save percentage over his last 10 games.
But Swayman is only sporting a .902 save percentage since the All-Star break, with the 25-year-old netminder tagged with three goals against on 29 shots during Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers.
“You don’t want to lose, but you want to trust the process,” Swayman said of his showing against New York. “And that’s what happened tonight. And I think, again, a lot of opportunities to learn from our mistakes and move forward as a team.”
This recent slide is a sizable dip from the brilliance Swayman displayed earlier this season when he sported a .924 save percentage and recorded three shutouts over his first 27 games.
Even though the results haven’t been there of late for Swayman, Ullmark stressed that every netminder goes through their fair share of peaks and valleys over an 82-game grind.
“We don’t go into details,” Ullmark said of his recent conversations with Swayman. “We show our support, talking about small things, maybe talking about life. Life is bigger than hockey. And sometimes it might be things that are going on off the ice that might be bothering [you] and that kind of creates this inconsistency on the ice. I’ve been a part of that as well lately.”
The Bruins still have ample time to get Swayman back into a groove before the start of the playoffs, with 11 games left on the regular-season docket. Tightening up Swayman’s positioning and tracking between the pipes will be needed if Montgomery intends to roll out any semblance of a platoon this spring.
The case can also be made that Ullmark deserves the lion’s share of reps over this stretch run — given both his strong returns in net and in anticipation of the grind that awaits if he’s appointed the team’s No. 1 netminder.
But after months of adhering to a near-even split of reps with Swayman, Ullmark stressed that deviating from the script isn’t always the best path forward — a lesson that the Bruins learned the hard way last April against the Panthers.
“Come playoff time, you don’t want to change anything,” Ullmark noted. “You want to be the same guy. You want to do the same thing. So you have your routines, your preparations, the same things, which takes away a lot of the stress and the nervousness. You know, it’s still a hockey game.
“It’s just a little bit more intense and there’s more on the line obviously and if you lose four times, you’re out. But at the same time, you’re still going out there trying to win hockey games. There’s still a rubber puck you have to stop. There are still players trying to score on you.”
Marchand getting a breather
Brad Marchand did not participate in Friday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena, with Jim Montgomery tabbing it as a maintenance day for the Bruins captain.
The 35-year-old winger has been prescribed several practice days off throughout the season, but Montgomery added that it’s not set in stone that Marchand will get the green light for Saturday’s matinee matchup against the Flyers at Wells Fargo Arena.
“Most likely,” Montgomery said of Marchand’s chances of playing Saturday. “I’m not going to say 100 percent.”
Marchand has just one goal in his last 14 games, with his last power-play tally coming back on Jan. 13 against the Blues.
“I think the 82 [game] grind, you’re gonna have nights where you have it and nights when you don’t,” Montgomery said of Marchand’s recent play. “But I think with Brad, we always get his maximum effort and that’s how he leads us and I think that’s why we’re one of the teams with the most points in the league is because a lot of times your team plays a reflection of your captain. And our captain competes really hard.
“I feel our team competes really hard. But with that, there’s frustration. … He’s part of that frustration on the power play, right? He expects to do great things and that’s why he’s an elite player. But sometimes it doesn’t go your way — some nights, you get impatient. I think he’s a little impatient, right now, especially on the power play.”
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2024-03-22 20:52:00Z
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