Jeremy Swayman, by his nature, is an optimistic, positive person. Even as this season has fallen apart for him and his Boston Bruins teammates, that disposition has come across in numerous postgame press conferences.
Swayman has talked up silver linings and things to build on and has displayed a seemingly unwavering confidence that he and the team will grow from whatever challenges they’ve faced. It has often felt incongruous with whichever lopsided loss we all just watched.
Swayman sounded a little different after Sunday’s 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. There was a little more brutal honesty regarding his own play.
“I want to give this team a chance to win every night, and I haven't done that the last two games,” Swayman said. “So, that's something that I'm going to work on. I'm not giving up. I'm keeping my chin up. I'm not getting the results right now, but I owe these guys better. I owe a hell of a lot of people a lot better. And that's exactly what I'm going to do.”
He’s right, of course. Swayman hasn’t been nearly good enough this season, and these last two weeks have arguably been the low point. After giving up seven goals on 23 shots Sunday, Swayman has now surrendered four or more goals in four straight starts. He is 0-4-0 with an .815 save percentage during that time.
The Bruins’ problems aren’t all on him, obviously. Defensively, the Bruins make too many mistakes defending the rush and leave too many guys open around the net. Offensively, they’re making history for all the wrong reasons, with Sunday’s 13-shot effort marking their eighth straight game with 25 or fewer shots on goal.
But Swayman isn’t helping. At least three of the goals he allowed Sunday could have been stopped. Two of them were the Kings’ fourth and fifth goals, the ones that turned what had been a close game into a blowout. The Kings generated 2.29 expected goals according to Natural Stat Trick, or 2.65 according to Moneypuck, meaning Swayman gave up four more goals than expected.
That alone would force Swayman to take a look in the mirror, but the situation Sunday night was also exasperated by his goalie fight that wasn’t. While fans and media may have appreciated the entertainment, it seems that Swayman’s antics weren’t well received in the room, despite Swayman’s assertion postgame that he was just defending a teammate.
Defenseman Nikita Zadorov, no stranger to fighting himself, was asked after the game if he appreciated Swayman standing up for teammate Marat Khusnutdinov, who had been on the receiving end of a jab and a headlock from Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper.
“Is that what it is?” Zadorov responded.
“Looked like it,” The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa said.
“OK,” Zadorov said. “I don’t know. No comment.”
Interim head coach Joe Sacco also dodged the question when asked if he was OK with Swayman challenging Kuemper.
“I just feel like tonight’s game was more about, there was some intensity involved in the game and in the period there,” Sacco said. “I just felt like we needed to be better as a team there in that situation, and the whole second period after that third goal.”
NESN analyst and WEEI Sunday Skate co-host Andrew Raycroft had a good explanation for the tepid responses from Swayman’s teammate and coach on his Morning Bru podcast.
“It can’t be to stand up for your teammates,” the former Bruins goalie said of Swayman’s actions. “I’ve been around hockey a really, really, really long time at this point now. I played the position. And I know for an absolute fact that not one of those forwards that I’ve ever played with looked to me to stand up for my teammates. You can’t convince me that any goalie has ever thought that, ever, in the history of hockey.
“…You don’t go after the other goalie to set the tone. It’s just not what it is. So, you hear that answer [from Swayman], that’s what he said it is. But I have to imagine it’s more just to put it on tape and say he did it.”
That probably hits the nail on the head. Zadorov and Sacco don’t think it’s Swayman’s job to be an enforcer, because it’s never any goalie’s job to do that. So, they may very well feel like Swayman was just doing it for himself – “to put it on tape and say he did it,” as Razor put it. Swayman has not hidden his desire to get in a goalie fight someday.
It didn’t help that Swayman gave up four more goals after the non-fight. Zadorov was clearly frustrated by the sheer number of goals the Bruins allowed, too.
“Everything goes in,” Zadorov said. “It’s embarrassing, obviously. How many times we get beat by these teams scoring six goals, seven goals on us this year? It’s definitely unacceptable. It’s not what we’re looking for. Not much to say after this one, for sure.”
Zadorov pointed the finger at the whole team, saying later that they’re “getting pushed around way too easy” and “giving up grade-A’s left and right,” but “everything goes in” comes across as a shot – intentionally or not – at the goalie.
And what makes all of this even more eyebrow-raising is that it’s not the first time this season we’ve heard one of Swayman’s teammates make some curious postgame comments about him.
Back on Dec. 11, after an 8-1 loss in Winnipeg, then-captain Brad Marchand was asked if he felt bad for Swayman after the goalie was left in for all eight goals. The cliché hockey player answer would have been something like, “Yeah, we really hung him out to dry tonight.” Marchand didn’t give the cliché answer.
“Not really,” Marchand said. “Everyone had a bad night. He was part of it. He's not singled out. I don't think anyone can look themselves in the mirror and say that they had a good game. So, he's part of the group. He's part of the bad loss.”
Marchand made another Zadorov-like comment after a 2-1 loss to the Islanders on Feb. 27, a game in which both goals against Swayman probably should have been saved.
“It seems like right now, any time we make a mistake it’s going to end up in the back of our net,” Marchand said that night, just a week before he got traded.
There was also the perceived shot at Swayman by Marchand before the season, when he said he “won’t ever talk about contract stuff in the media” right after Swayman had done just that on a podcast.
Marchand is gone, but now it’s Zadorov making comments that can be interpreted as swipes at Swayman, whether he means it that way or not. Add Sacco’s non-answer to the list as well.
It’s hard to know just how much to read into it all. Some of the postgame comments could just be the product of general frustration after a bad loss, in the middle of a six-game losing streak. But at the very least, it is completely fair to say that Swayman’s teammate and coach didn’t exactly jump to his defense or applaud his attempted fight. They did not see it as an altruistic defense of a teammate like Swayman claimed it was.
If there are any issues in the room, there is really only one surefire way for Swayman to win everyone over: Play better. And if it’s too late for that to happen this season, then it absolutely needs to happen next season. One down season to start this eight-year megadeal could be forgiven. Two would be a major problem. That’s life as one of the highest-paid goalies in the NHL.
As Swayman himself said Sunday night, “I owe these guys better. I owe a hell of a lot of people a lot better.”