MONTREAL – The Bruins have plenty of questions to try to answer before the playoffs begin in five weeks. They’re still trying to figure out the best combinations for their top two lines. They have to see if trade deadline acquisitions Andrew Peeke and Pat Maroon will get up to speed in time to be everyday players, or if they’re better suited to rotational depth roles. (Peeke had a strong Boston debut Thursday in Montreal, while Maroon remains out injured.)
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But the biggest question, paradoxically, comes at the position where they have felt the most secure all season. How are they going to handle their goalies down the stretch and into the playoffs?
Head coach Jim Montgomery and goalie coach Bob Essensa could continue to rotate Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark over the final 14 games and, unlike last year, continue the rotation into the playoffs. Montgomery said earlier this season that he would be more open to the idea this time around.
Or they could start to give one of the two goalies a heavier workload over this final month in an effort to prepare him to run with the job as the clear-cut starter come Round 1. The Bruins did not do that with Ullmark in the run-up to last year’s playoffs before riding him for the first six playoff games. Montgomery indicated earlier this week that he would be open to that path, too.
“At some point, we might want to see someone play three games in a row,” he said. “That’s kind of what we’ve discussed. We haven’t discussed it since a couple weeks ago – let a guy go on a run and let the other guy go on a run, just to assimilate the demands of playing.”
In a switch from last year, Swayman has had the better overall season this year. Neither has really pulled away from the other since the All-Star break, though. Swayman has more wins (5 in 10 starts vs. 3 in 9 for Ullmark following his 2-1 overtime win over the Canadiens Thursday night), but their save percentages in that time are nearly identical (.909 for Swayman, .910 for Ullmark).
Their advanced metrics are all very close, too, and all near the top of the league. Swayman is seventh in goals saved above expected (15.9), Ullmark 12th (10.8). Swayman is second in 5-on-5 save percentage (.935), Ullmark fourth (.929). Ullmark is fourth in high-danger save percentage (.860), Swayman ninth (.843).
On Thursday, when Montgomery was asked a follow-up about the idea of giving one goalie three (or more) straight starts between now and the end of the regular season, he was noncommittal.
“I don't know,” he said. “I mean, that's something that we'll just continue to talk about internally if it makes sense. We have a little more rest now on our schedule after a heavy load of games, so it might make more sense a little bit then. But we also worry then that a goalie might not get in for almost six or seven days.”
There’s also a third, hybrid option: Don’t commit to either path and just take things game-by-game. If Swayman starts Game 1 and plays well, keep playing him until he doesn’t. If he slips up, go to Ullmark the next game and take the same approach with him. That plan would likely lead to some sort of rotation, but it wouldn’t be strictly every other game. It would require a faster trigger than last spring, when Ullmark was given multiple opportunities to bounce back from subpar performances before the Bruins finally switched to Swayman for Game 7.
Asked on Thursday if he would be able to ride one goalie in the playoffs even if the rotation continues until the end of the regular season, Montgomery outlined something along those hybrid lines.
“You might go two games in a row with one goalie if we keep doing [the rotation] and rotate after that,” he said. “Just when you start winning in the playoffs, it makes it harder to switch – lineup and goaltenders. But that's something that we're gonna have to discuss internally, and we know if you go with a platoon the whole year, switching in and switching out, you can't expect one guy to ride the emotions of the playoffs by themselves.”
That might seem like just another vague answer in a string of them from both Montgomery and general manager Don Sweeney, but there’s actually one big takeaway there: Montgomery seems to be ruling out what the Bruins did last year. It sounds like he believes that, in retrospect, rotating all the way to the end in the regular season and then trying to ride one guy for a whole playoff series was a mistake.
So, what will the Bruins do this year? We don’t know yet, but it seems like a safe bet that it won’t be that. If they keep the rotation for these final 14 regular-season games, expect them to use both Swayman and Ullmark in the playoffs – whether in a strict rotation or a hybrid platoon where one guy might get two or three starts in a row, but no more than that.
Conversely, if they are thinking about riding one guy, expect them to give it a regular-season trial run and end the rotation soon.