The Bruins may not have a true No. 1 workhorse goalie this season. Their ideal scenario is for Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark to both play well and settle into something close to a 50/50 split in playing time.
If things work out that way, any debate about who’s the No. 1 or 2 or 1A or 1B will be fairly irrelevant until either a potential Tuukka Rask return or the playoffs.
But there is one night when it’ll matter at least a little: Opening night, which is now 11 days away. And with just one preseason game remaining (the Bruins have a weird 10-day break between the preseason and regular season), it’s pretty clear who should get that opening night start.
Swayman has been excellent this preseason. He has outplayed Ullmark. And he has earned that start.
Swayman’s latest stellar outing came Monday night in the Bruins’ 2-1 overtime loss to the Flyers in Philadelphia. Playing behind the Bruins’ JV squad against the Flyers’ mostly varsity team, Swayman stopped 34 of the 36 shots he faced.
Several were of the highlight-reel variety. Swayman denied Nicolas Aube-Kubel on a point-blank chance after the Flyers forward blew right past Nick Wolff. He made a nice reactionary kick save on a Max Willman chance off a broken play in the slot. He stoned both Cam Atkinson and James van Riemsdyk on breakaway chances.
He robbed Joel Farabee twice in a matter of seconds while the Bruins were shorthanded. Morgan Frost got free in the slot in the third period, but Swayman was up to that challenge, too. Heck, he even made a helmet save on Elliot Desnoyers. Time and again, he looked calm when everything around him seemed chaotic.
The Flyers’ lone goal in regulation was a Sean Couturier one-timer on the power play from the lower right circle. Swayman did have a chance and may have gotten a piece of it, but it wasn’t an easy save by any means. Ivan Provorov’s overtime winner came on a two-on-one off a Bruins turnover.
With Ullmark expected to play the full game Wednesday night in Boston’s preseason finale, Swayman wraps up the preseason with a .932 save percentage in two and a half games.
If there were any questions about whether the University of Maine product would immediately return to the outstanding form he was in last season in his first 10 NHL starts, the 22-year-old has answered them.
Ullmark, meanwhile, has not yet found his form with his new team. In his game and a half so far, he has allowed six goals on 32 shots for a paltry .813 save percentage. Those goals weren’t all his fault, but a couple were, including his brutal overtime turnover that led to the Rangers’ winning goal on Saturday.
"Sway's been rock solid," Cassidy said Monday night. "Ullmark, just in terms of the exhibition play…hasn't been as sharp as Swayman. We know that. Some of that could be that he's ramping it up a little bit, he didn't finish last year playing. There's some different things that we have to factor into our decision.
"Either way, I think we're going to be comfortable with who goes in there. They're both going to see time in October. We knew that going in that there would be a certain level of competition.
"We know that Sway looks like how he left off last year, that's he's solid and the goals that are getting by him are good goals. He's sealing well and challenging how he needs to. He looks sharp."
Ullmark is a good goalie. He’ll be a good goalie for the Bruins. Not starting him opening night doesn’t mean the Bruins suddenly don’t believe in their big free-agent signing.
It just means they recognize that Swayman is playing better right now and has earned that mostly honorary title of “opening night starter.”
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