Here’s a scary thought for the rest of the NHL: What if this is what a slump looks like for this year’s Bruins team?
Wait… the team that has one regulation loss since Thanksgiving? Slumping? It doesn’t add up, and that’s the point.
The Bruins have very clearly not been playing their best hockey for a couple weeks now, basically since they returned from a Western road trip on Dec. 13. And yet they keep finding ways to get points, with the biggest way being that they continue to get the best goaltending in the NHL.
Wednesday night was the latest example. Visiting New Jersey for the second time in a week and playing on the second night of a back-to-back, the Bruins got off to another slow start -- something that’s been a theme recently -- and got doubled up in shots in the first period (16-8).
They were better in the second, but then went back to struggling to generate offense in a 1-1 game in the third. They kept grinding away and eventually broke through when Patrice Bergeron tipped in a Hampus Lindholm shot from the point. Pavel Zacha added an empty-netter and the Bruins headed back home with a 3-1 win.
This is how it’s gone for the Bruins over the last couple weeks: They struggle to bring a full 60-minute effort, but they have a good period or good stretch at some point during the game, get some big saves, and ride that to a win, or at least an overtime/shootout point.
The big saves have been the biggest key. That was true again Wednesday, as Linus Ullmark was outstanding. He stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced, including 11 of 12 high-danger shots. He saved 3.11 goals above expected according to Natural Stat Trick, which is an elite single-game performance.
Ullmark has obviously been great all season, and there’s been no sign of let-up. He is now 20-1-1 and continues to lead the NHL in save percentage (.938) and goals-against average (1.90). Jeremy Swayman, who dealt with inconsistency and injury earlier in the year, has been much better of late, posting a .935 save percentage over his last three starts and almost single-handedly getting the team to overtime on Tuesday in Ottawa.
It’s the ultimate safety net for the Bruins. Even when their offense isn’t firing on all cylinders (three goals or fewer in three of the last four games), their power play dries up (0-for-7 over the last three games), and their team defense gets a little leaky (30 or more shots allowed in six of the last seven games), opponents still have to deal with what has been by far the best goaltending in the NHL statistically. They have a team save percentage of .928. No other team is better than .916.
Is that sustainable? Maybe not, at least not quite to this extent. Goals have been going up and save percentages down for the better part of the past decade. In 2011-12, five teams had a team save percentage better than .920. In 2021-22, zero did.
But Ullmark and Swayman can absolutely continue to be the best goaltending duo in the NHL, even if their numbers (Ullmark’s in particular) do dip a little at some point. And when you have the best goaltending in the NHL, you’re probably not going to hit many true slumps where losses start to pile up.
If and when the goaltending does take a slight downturn, the rest of the Bruins’ game could very well be back on track and ready to pick up the slack, the same way Ullmark and Swayman have for them recently. The chances of an opponent catching the Bruins at a time when everything is off seems pretty slim given the Bruins’ depth at every position and ability to win in different ways.
So, to answer our initial question: Yeah, the Bruins just might be so good that these last two weeks is what qualifies as a “slump” for them. And their goaltending just might be so good that they’re going to keep racking up points anyways.