The Bruins won Game 1 of their first-round series against the Maple Leafs with Jeremy Swayman in net. They lost Monday night’s Game 2, 3-2, with Linus Ullmark in net.
Is the Bruins' goalie rotation here to stay?
If you just looked at those results completely devoid of context, you might conclude that carrying the goalie rotation into the playoffs was a mistake.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery does not regret his bold decision, though.
“No second guesses,” Montgomery said after the game. “He was terrific. He made multiple big-time saves. It’s a strength of our team. Both of them played really well. We only scored two goals.”
Montgomery is right on all counts. Despite the loss, Ullmark was very good. He made several excellent saves, including a highway robbery of Calle Jarnkrok in the second period when he saved a shot right on the goal line with his glove. In the third period, with the game tied 2-2, he made a sprawling glove save to rob Nick Robertson on a rebound chance.
None of the goals Ullmark gave up were of the soft variety. The first was preceded by a crazy carom off the glass in the defensive zone, followed by Brandon Carlo misplaying the loose puck, followed by a rebound off an Auston Matthews shot that hit the post.
The second is the one he maybe could’ve made a save on, a turnaround rocket by John Tavares on a Leafs power play that beat Ullmark blocker-side. But it was a great shot, and Ullmark may have been partially screened by his own defenseman, Kevin Shattenkirk.
The third, winning goal was a breakaway for Matthews, the best goal-scorer on the planet right now.
The Bruins could have been better defensively on all of them. They also needed to be a lot better offensively to get Ullmark some run support. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Bruins landed just three high-danger shots on Ilya Samsonov all night, while Ullmark faced nine.
“I think it’s a function of they’re defending well. It’s also a function of we’re not playing fast enough,” Montgomery said of the lack of quality offensive looks. “We’re slow in transition, which is not allowing us to possess pucks and not allowing us to get in on the forecheck.”
Going with Ullmark after Swayman played so well in Game 1 was a bold decision, but according to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, it was one that had been made a week ago.
Really, it was a decision two years in the making. The Bruins had the best goaltending in terms of team save percentage last season, and ranked third this year behind only the Winnipeg Jets and Florida Panthers. The vast majority of that success came with Swayman and Ullmark alternating stats.
In fact, the last time either goalie started two games in a row was two months ago. The Bruins adhered to a strict rotation for the final 26 games of the regular season, despite Montgomery suggesting at various points that he might want to give one or the other consecutive starts at some point leading up to the playoffs.
The fact that he didn’t was probably the biggest tip-off that rotating in the playoffs was a real possibility. Asked in Montreal on March 14 if he would do what he did last season – rotate until the end of the regular season and then ride one guy in the playoffs – Montgomery strongly hinted that he wouldn’t do that again.
“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,” Montgomery said then.
Last year, the Bruins also rotated down the stretch in the regular season, but then they tried to ride Ullmark in the first round. He didn’t hold up for the full series, and Montgomery ultimately made the uncomfortable decision to switch to a cold Swayman for Game 7.
This year, Montgomery decided to rotate out of the gate, getting both goalies in early in the series and keeping everyone fresh. Despite the final result Monday, it would be hard to argue that was a mistake.
Looking ahead, the Bruins will now obviously go back to Swayman in Game 3 Wednesday night in Toronto. It’s possible Montgomery could decide to stick with Swayman in Game 4 if he delivers another lights-out victory like he did in Game 1, but it seems more likely that the rotation will continue and Ullmark will go back in for Game 4 regardless of what happens in Game 3.