The Bruins entered Tuesday night with the best team save percentage and best goals-against average in the NHL. To suggest that there was any sort of concern with their goaltending situation would be the nitpickiest of nitpicks.
But… there was a small nit to pick. The Bruins were relying a little too much on Linus Ullmark, who has started two-thirds of their games this season. They needed more consistency from Jeremy Swayman so they could balance out the minutes a little bit more.
Well, it looks like they're getting it now. Swayman was excellent Tuesday night in Ottawa, and has now looked really good three starts in a row.
Returning to the same building where he had arguably his worst game of the season back in November, Swayman stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced, including seven in overtime, in Boston's 3-2 shootout loss to the Senators. It would have been a win had Cam Talbot (49 saves) not been even better at the other end in what turned out to be a terrific goaltending duel.
While the two points would have been nice, what's more important for the Bruins is that Swayman now has a .935 save percentage over his last three starts and has been looking a lot more like the goalie who was dominant at times both last year and late in the 2020-21 season. That's a goalie head coach Jim Montgomery and goalie coach Bob Essensa can be confident turning to roughly every other game.
"I thought he was excellent throughout the game," Montgomery said of Swayman during his postgame interview with NESN. "Their goalie obviously had to make a lot of big-time saves in the third, but I thought Sway made a lot of big-time save throughout the game."
Ullmark, of course, has certainly proven more than capable of handling the workload he's gotten thus far. He leads the NHL in wins, save percentage and GAA and has shown zero signs of fatigue. But the Bruins also know their schedule gets busier in the second half, and they want to make sure they keep Ullmark fresh down the stretch and don't overwork him.
That means they will have to rely on Swayman a little more, which means Swayman will have to be more reliable than he has been at times this season.
Swayman struggled out of the gate and then missed two weeks with an injury. Upon his return in mid-November, he basically alternated good starts with inconsistent ones. After allowing four goals on 16 shots in a loss to the Coyotes on Dec. 9, Swayman went more than a week without a start as the Bruins opted to ride Ullmark for three straight.
When Swayman got back in against Columbus on Dec. 17 in what initially looked like a soft landing spot, he actually wound up being tested with 33 shots as the Bruins brought a subpar effort in front of him. He stopped 31 of them to lead Boston to a win. The next time out, he beat Winnipeg and Vezina Trophy candidate Connor Hellebuyck.
Then came Tuesday night. With the Bruins struggling to find their game after a three-day holiday break and day-of-game travel, Swayman came up big in the first period to keep the game scoreless. He made a handful of point-blank saves, including two apiece on Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle.
Swayman's best work came in overtime, though. He made seven saves in five minutes of 3-on-3 action, including a couple more on Stutzle, two on golden opportunities from Alex DeBrincat, and lastly a breakaway stop on Tkachuk in the final 10 seconds.
Three good starts doesn't guarantee that Swayman won't struggle again or that the Bruins will immediately begin splitting starts 50-50. But it does increase the Bruins' confidence level in him, and that's a critical development for a team that hasn't had too much else that has needed fixing.
