Bruins

No need to overthink it, Bruins. It’s Jeremy Swayman’s net until further notice

"It seems like you can never rattle the guy."

By Conor Ryan

May 7, 2024

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COMMENTARY

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers did everything they could to make Jeremy Swayman uncomfortable between the pipes on Monday. 

Beyond a punishing forecheck, the Panthers have a knack for making life miserable for opposing goalies by creating traffic near the crease. That culminated in a blue-paint pig pile in the third period — with both red and white jerseys sprawled out in front of a diving Swayman. 

Amid that mass of humanity, Swayman emerged with the puck in his glove, and a smile on his face. 

Swayman’s numbers this postseason speak for themselves. But beyond the stats, the 25-year-old netminder’s confidence and calmness is carrying over to his teammates this postseason. 

“It seems like you can never rattle the guy,” Mason Lohrei said of Swayman. “He’s always smiling, always singing along to songs. It’s relaxing, at least for me. 

“I mean, I see it and kind of makes you remember that it’s just a game. And if he can go out there and play as well as he does and go out and have fun, it kind of lets you do the same.” 

The Bruins noted ahead of this playoff run that they had a plan already in place with their tried-and-true goalie rotation between Linus Ullmark and Swayman. But Don Sweeney also left in an important qualifier when it came to divvying up reps for both netminders. 

“Performance and results will dictate some of this, but we know what the plan is going in, and so do they… and we’re comfortable with it,” Sweeney said on April 18. 

Ullmark stands as the best goalie contingency plan available for any team left in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Bruins will need the reigning Vezina Trophy winner at some point if this playoff run carries over into late May and June. 

But with performance and results trumping all other factors at this point, the writing is on the wall for Boston. 

Until further notice, this is Jeremy Swayman’s net for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

Following yet another stellar showing on Monday against the Panthers (38 saves on 39 shots), Swayman is now 5-2 this postseason with an absurd .955 save percentage.

With Monday’s win, Swayman became the eighth goaltender in NHL history to allow two or fewer goals in each of his first seven starts of a single postseason — and the first since Jean-Sebastian Giguere in 2007. 

His best save in Game 1 might have come just 40 seconds into the matchup, with Swayman sliding to his right and denying a rebound shot from Anton Lundell with a clutch pad save. 

“That save in the first minute — that gets jacked into our net? We’re down 1-0, their crowd is going wild and we’re on our heels for a while,” Jim Montgomery said of Swayman’s start. “Instead, he makes that save on a tremendous second-effort play that you don’t see very often because he’s just in a zone that’s unparalleled, almost, in the first seven games of someone’s playoffs. And all of a sudden, our bench has gone to another level.” 

As brilliant as Swayman was during Boston’s eventual first-round triumph over the Maple Leafs, there was a compelling case to made for Ullmark to draw back into the lineup in either Game 1 or 2 against Florida. 

Rolling out Swayman on Monday marked his fifth start in 10 days, a workload that he’s yet to assume at this stage of his career.

The appeal of giving him a bit of a breather on Monday was bolstered by the fact that Ullmark, who last played on April 22, won all three of his starts against the Panthers during the regular season, posting a .947 save percentage along the way. 

But as tempting as it might have been to rest Swayman for a game or two, Montgomery admitted that the Bruins couldn’t ignore the end results.

“Well, we talked about it as a staff and because of the emotional high of Game 7 and the travel,” Montgomery said Monday of weighing which goalie to start in Game 1. “We contemplated going with Ullmark because we have so much confidence in him too. But when a guy is playing that well, it’s like — don’t outsmart yourself.” 

Had the Bruins won Game 1, but Swayman showed some dip in play or fatigue, the Bruins likely would have taken the opportunity to give Ullmark a look in Game 2 in order to keep both goalies fresh.

But Swayman has refused to budge from his spot in net, and the Bruins will welcome it as long as the wins keep on piling up. 

According to MoneyPuck, Swayman has already posted 13.2 goals saved above expected this postseason. New York’s Igor Shesterkin ranks second in that same category among playoff goalies — but with a goals saved above expected rate of 5.8. 

Swayman has been the best goalie this postseason, and it hasn’t been particularly close. 

The Bruins will need to turn to Ullmark at some point during this postseason run to help stem the tide when things inevitably go awry. 

At least, that’s the conventional thought when it comes to the expected ups and downs that present themselves in playoff hockey. 

But so far, Swayman is defying just about every established notion regarding Boston’s goalie rotation — and smiling with each new scoring chance that he’s snuffed out.