Bruins still need much more from Jeremy Swayman

The Boston Bruins should have had a statement win Thursday night in Edmonton. It slipped away from them and wound up being a 3-2 overtime loss in large part because goaltender Jeremy Swayman did not match the performance of the defense in front of him.

The Bruins did about as good a job limiting the high-powered Oilers offense as anyone has this season. They held Edmonton to 24 shots on goal and seven high-danger chances in regulation, both of which would have been the Oilers' second-lowest totals in a game this season.

The Bruins built up a 2-0 lead with a dominant first period. The Oilers unsurprisingly pushed back in the second period, but Boston's defensive intensity remained high, with some crucial blocks from the likes of Charlie McAvoy, Johnny Beecher and Brandon Carlo keeping Edmonton off the board.

The Oilers finally broke through on what should have been a harmless shot from outside the right faceoff dot. Instead, Zach Hyman's shot somehow beat Swayman clean through the legs. No screen. No deflection. No snipe. It's a goal that simply can't happen, not against an opponent like the Oilers and not when the Bruins' defense was more than doing its part in front of Swayman.

That goal certainly appeared to temporarily deflate the Bruins, but to their credit, they did not collapse. In fact, they responded with a pretty strong third period as they tried to preserve the one-goal lead. The Oilers got some offensive-zone time, but the Bruins mostly kept them to the outside and away from high-danger areas.

The tying goal finally came off the stick of Connor McDavid with 2:21 to go. There was plenty of blame to go around. David Pastrnak won a battle in the defensive zone, but he, Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic then lost a 3-on-2 battle in the neutral zone with a collective subpar effort while going for a change. That left Nikita Zadorov in a tough position as the last defender back, and he overcommitted to Hyman, giving McDavid too much space in the right circle as a result.

And yet, even after all of that, Swayman had a chance to make a save in a crucial moment. As McDavid cut to the net, Swayman opened himself up just a little too much and gave McDavid the window he needed to poke the puck five-hole.

There wasn't much Swayman could have done on Mattias Ekholm's overtime winner, which came after the Bruins got caught in another bad change. Maybe his rebound control could have been a little better, but the puck was bouncing. Maybe he shouldn't have rushed a pass up ice 10 seconds earlier while the Bruins were starting to change, but that pass did lead to a scoring chance for Pastrnak.

The bigger problem was the game getting to overtime in the first place. The first goal was flat-out soft. The second wasn't necessarily soft, but it was stoppable. The two of them together leave a bitter taste on a night where the Bruins deserved better.

The opportunity to finish this western road trip with three straight wins after a disastrous first two games was right there for them. They still salvaged a 2-2-1 record, but that's not as worthy of celebration. They can and should feel good about the way they locked in defensively in the last three games, which continued their bigger-picture trend of winning in high-danger areas since interim head coach Joe Sacco took over.

What they should not feel great about, whether they'll say it publicly or not, is their goaltending. While Swayman has shown some signs of improvement over the last month, he is still not particularly close to the level the Bruins need him to be at.

The low point of Swayman's season was back-to-back outings in mid-November, right before Jim Montgomery got fired, in which he surrendered seven and then five goals. That dropped him to 5-7-2 on the season with an .884 save percentage.

Since then, the record has improved over his last 10 outings (6-3-1), but his save percentage is still under .900 (.892). Obviously, giving up eight goals against Winnipeg last week really drags that second number down. Even if you take that game out, though, Swayman has an .897 save percentage in his other six starts in December. The Bruins have a 5-0-1 record in those games, but that is more the result of improved team defense than improved goaltending.

The advanced stats are not kind to Swayman either. If you look at expected goals against, as calculated by Natural Stat Trick, Swayman has given up more goals than expected in five of his last starts, and in 16 of his 24 starts overall on the season. According to Moneypuck, Swayman ranks dead last in the NHL in goals saved above expected this year (-12.5).

Swayman is also still struggling to make enough saves on high-danger chances. Among 58 goalies who have played at least 10 games, Swayman also ranks dead last in high-danger save percentage (.711). That is a far cry from the previous two years, when Swayman was top 10. It's a far cry from last spring, when Swayman led all playoff goalies in goals saved above expected.

This year, Swayman just isn't making as many bailout, pick-me-up, gotta-have-it saves in close. Elite goalies, which is what Swayman is now getting paid to be, do that. He made a few great saves Thursday for sure, but not enough. McDavid's tying goal would have been a great time for one.

The Bruins have made a lot of improvements since Sacco took over. They are creating more chances offensively and giving up fewer defensively. Thursday served as proof that when they are on their game, they can compete with a top team like Edmonton. The next step that can elevate their game even more is for Swayman to get his game dialed in for good.