Bruce Cassidy is making a change in goal. The Bruins coach told reporters on Thursday that rookie Jeremy Swayman will start in Friday night’s Game 3 at TD Garden as Boston looks to avoid falling into an 0-3 hole against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Linus Ullmark has played the first two games of the series and has allowed eight goals on 57 shots (.860 save percentage). While the vast majority of those goals have not been his fault, he also has not been able to come up with the one or two big saves that could potentially generate some momentum.
Cassidy explained why he’s making the switch to Swayman now.
“I think Linus has been fine,” he said. “As I said after Game 1, I think we have to do a better job at the other end. But if it ends up being one of those 2-1 games, we may need a performance where we get that timely save and give the guys some life.
“That’s where we’re at right now. They’re scoring goals and they’re not giving very many up. So there’s a little bit to do at both ends. I’m not saying, ‘Well, Ullmark’s the reason.’ He’s not. But Swayman’s gonna be in there. He’ll get his opportunity. We talked about maybe at some point probably using both, so it’s gonna be tomorrow. Hopefully he’s up to the task.”
This will be Swayman’s first career postseason start. He appeared in one playoff game last year in relief of Tuukka Rask.
Meanwhile, there will also be a change on defense necessitated by the upper-body injury Hampus Lindholm suffered Wednesday night when he took a hard hit from Andrei Svechnikov. Cassidy said Lindholm was cleared to travel back to Boston with the team, but that he’ll be out for at least Game 3.
Cassidy said it will likely be Mike Reilly who goes in to replace Lindholm. Reilly has played a lot of minutes with both Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo, so putting him in that kind of top-four role is a more natural fit than trying to move Derek Forbort or Connor Clifton up and then bringing in Josh Brown.
“We’ve got Mike Reilly. He’s a left shot. He’s played a lot of games for us. So right now, that would be the obvious choice to go in,” Cassidy said. “He’s played with Charlie McAvoy, he’s played with Carlo. There shouldn’t be any adjustment period for him in terms of who he’s playing with. The adjustment period for him will be, he’s getting injected into a very intense, physical playoff series, and he has to be prepared for that type of hockey.”
Cassidy did not say if he’ll also make any changes up front. While there are no injuries there, he did do some line juggling Wednesday night to try to spark the offense, including moving David Pastrnak back to the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. The Bruins outshot the Hurricanes 7-2 in their 3:58 together at 5-on-5, and they were on the ice for Boston’s lone even-strength goal. Cassidy also benched Trent Frederic for an extended stretch of the game after he took a foolish penalty.
“We’ll look at a few things,” Cassidy said. “The guys are off today, so we’ll see how our health is. I don’t anticipate anyone not being able to play physically, but we’ll have to look and see what’s best for the team.”
Chris Wagner and Anton Blidh have been with the team as extra forwards and would seem to be the most likely choices to go in if anyone were scratched.
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