You had to feel a bit for Jaroslav Halak when the Bruins’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils came to an end Tuesday night.
While that loss, one night after clinching a playoff spot, wasn’t really the kind that would lead to stick-smashing levels of anger and frustration for most of the Bruins, it was for Halak.
After giving up the overtime winner to Pavel Zacha on a delayed penalty call, Halak smashed his stick against the post, then the ice, and then the glass next to the bench. For good measure, he also kicked over a stool on the bench before finally heading down the tunnel to the locker room.
It felt like the reaction of someone who realized he wasn’t getting his job back.
It’s hard to make a case for Halak being Tuukka Rask’s backup come playoff time, even if the road that led here has been largely out of his control.
Getting COVID-19 is a tough way to lose a job, and it was Halak being forced into COVID protocol back on April 5 that -- combined with Tuukka Rask being out injured -- opened the door for Jeremy Swayman to get an opportunity alongside fellow rookie Dan Vladar.
Swayman has taken that opportunity and run with it, going 6-2-0 with a .942 save percentage in eight starts. With Rask making it back before Halak and playing very well himself (6-0-0 with a .943 save percentage since his return), and so little time left in the regular season, there just wasn’t an opportunity for Halak to get into enough games to make a real push to challenge for more playing time.
The Bruins needed to get Rask enough reps to get him ready for the playoffs, and as long as Swayman continued to give them reason to believe in him, they needed to get him more experience before his first NHL postseason.
Halak was given the thankless job of designated nightly backup, with Rask and Swayman getting full days off on days they weren’t starting. Halak got to play 17 minutes in relief of Rask back on April 23, but until Tuesday night, that was it.
He got the start Tuesday because the Bruins had already clinched a playoff spot and because Rask said he only needed one or two more starts over the final five regular-season games. It’s unclear if even a great performance could have made it a real competition with Swayman, but it wasn’t a great performance anyways.
Halak wasn’t bad by any means, and expecting him to be perfect in his first start in a month wouldn’t be fair. But Yegor Sharangovich’s tying goal in the third was a stoppable shot, and he could have done better on Zacha’s winner too. There was also another Zacha chance in the third that leaked behind him and could have been a goal had it not been cleared off the line by Jeremy Lauzon.
With Rask expected to start two of the final four games, it would seem like the Bruins would be best-served to give Swayman the other two and get him that much more experience rather than have him go into the playoffs starting just two games over the final two weeks. If that's the case, it's possible Tuesday was Halak's final start with the Bruins as he heads to free agency after the season.
The simple truth is what we’ve known for a while now: Rask and Swayman both give the Bruins a better chance to win than Halak right now, and that unfortunately leaves the veteran on the outside looking in as Boston prepares for the postseason. If Rask struggles or his injury flares up in the playoffs, would you rather turn to Swayman or Halak? The answer seems pretty easy.
The numbers all back that up, too. According to Natural Stat Trick, Swayman has a .951 save percentage at five-on-five and a .900 save percentage on high-danger chances, both of which are first in the NHL among goalies who have played at least 300 minutes this season. Halak is at .912 at five-on-five and .814 on high-danger chances. Rask, by the way, is at .924 and .826. Swayman has saved 6.18 goals above average in all situations, Rask 2.80 and Halak a subpar minus-4.73.
Halak has been a very good backup for the better part of three seasons, combining with Rask to give the Bruins arguably the best goaltending tandem in the league the previous two years. Getting pushed out of that role because you contracted a virus that has shut down the world for over a year and killed more than half a million people in the United States isn’t really fair.
But the Bruins have to do what gives them the best chance to win in the playoffs, and right now that is pretty clearly dressing Swayman over Halak. And Halak seemed to know it as he went into stick-smashing mode after the final buzzer Tuesday night.