As Tomas Hertl recoiled in anguish, Jeremy Swayman could only smile.
Amid a fracas down in Boston’s crease, an equalizer appeared to land right on Hertl’s stick in the closing minutes of Saturday’s matchup at SAP Center. With Swayman sprawled out on the frozen sheet, the Sharks had the right guy in place with the puck on his twig — with Hertl gifted with an open B’s net in a one-goal game.
As Mike Reilly dropped to the ice and an effort to absorb the incoming shot, the Sharks’ top-line pivot released the puck in search of a tie game.
The biscuit sailed past Reilly, but not into twine. For as much as a prone Swayman seemed out of the fight after hitting the deck amid an early netfront battle, the Bruins netminder's glove had other plans — with a quick flash of the leather robbing Hertl at the last second.
Jeremy Swayman robs Tomas Hertl with a sprawled-out glove stop: pic.twitter.com/3IDTGC5cSW
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 27, 2022
“I felt it hit me,” Swayman said of his clutch glove stop. “I thought I smothered it but then I think it trickled down. I don't know. I have to watch it. And it was just a scramble, I wanted to battle, do the best that I could. I ended up seeing a puck go from the center to the left side and I put the glove up. And it worked.”
For Hertl and the Sharks, it was a back-breaking snag that snuffed out any hope of a late-game rally — with Swayman’s save ending a seven-shot salvo that San Jose generated over the last nine minutes of regulation.
For Bruce Cassidy and the Bruins, it was another feather in Swayman’s cap as the 23-year-old netminder continues to stake his claim as the franchise’s No. 1 netminder for the remainder of the 2021-22 campaign.
"Obviously an all-world save at the end there and we needed it,” Cassidy said. “The timing was perfect.”
Indeed, Swayman saved his best stretch of play for when Boston needed it in the Bay Arena. Through the first 50 minutes of regulation, the Bruins outshot the Sharks by a 36-9 margin. The lone goal that Swayman relinquished was a seeing-eye tally off the stick of Timo Meier. Far from ideal.
But with Boston struggling to keep its head above water during the Sharks’ late-game surge, Swayman kept his club afloat with a perfect showing in the third — turning aside all of the Grade-A chances in front of him during crunch time.
It wasn’t always pretty, but when the Bruins needed someone to bail them out, their rookie goalie was up to the task.
"You go through the history of goaltenders and there are all types of different techniques,” Cassidy said. “There's no one set, but most of the good goaltenders to me are all mentally very competitive individuals — short memories, can battle through adversity when their game's not where maybe they want it to be. Every player goes through that at every position.
“So I think psychologically, yes, you got to have a mind to stay in the game, be competitive. Step up almost. It's almost like the best ones step up when your team has a lull too — knowing that hey, this is my time now, they need me, I got to be there. And I think you see that with Sway. There wasn't a lot going on in front of him, but when he needed to be there, he was."
Even before Swayman’s late-game heroics against the Sharks, Cassidy noted after pregame skate at SAP Center that the young goalie was “probably a little ahead” of his battery mate in Linus Ullmark for the No. 1 spot in Boston’s goalie corps.
Swayman’s play Saturday night further reinforced Cassidy’s sentiment. Since Tuukka Rask announced his retirement back on Feb. 9, Swayman has turned a corner in his game, reverting to the game-breaking backstop that burst onto the scene during the 2020 season.
Over his last five games, Swayman is 4-0-1 with a .964 save percentage since Rask hung his skates — and is starting to climb up the leaderboard when it comes to both baseline and underlying goalie metrics across the league.
Igor Shesterkin (.941 save percentage) continues to stake his claim as the top netminder in the NHL, but Swayman’s .926 save percentage now stands as the fourth-highest mark in the league this season.
Rebound issues might have plagued Swayman through his first few months of the 2021-22 campaign, but the rookie’s efforts toward limiting those second-chance looks and Grade-A chances have allowed his goals saved above average rates to spike during this second-half surge.
Amid the 62 netminders that have logged at least 200 minutes of even-strength ice time this year, Swayman ranks ninth overall in goals saved above average at 9.75, while his high-danger save percentage of .866 is good for fifth among that same pool of goalies.
Sure seems like a No. 1 netminder to me.
“He's just getting better and better,” Cassidy said. “A few puck plays, we got to talk to him more about that we can sort of increase our efficiency on the breakouts — that's a challenging area for us. Whether goalie touches it or not, we've got to clean some of that up because good forechecking teams will eventually take advantage of you. But in terms of stopping the puck, he looked square all night, and some traffic around the front of the net where he's is recovering well now. A lot of good in his game.”
The Bruins still likely require a longer sample size before coronating Swayman as the next in a steady line of franchise netminders that have anchored Boston’s net over the past two decades. Even if Swayman continues to thrive over the final two months of the regular season, the Bruins will still need to see just how much that success carries over to the postseason if the rookie is indeed handed the keys ahead of a Cup run.
But after a few weeks in which Boston’s goalie corps looked like a crowded mess — and later a rudderless grouping in wake of Rask’s retirement — Swayman’s ascension as the B’s top goalie sure seems to be well underway.
“That's what they've asked for Linus and I, both from the start, they want both of us to compete for that number one job,” Swayman said of his role on the team. “It's only going to help the team. And that's all I want to do. I think we both keep it really simple for ourselves — Linus and I, about, when we get the chance to play, we want to do whatever is best for the team. And we're both supportive of each other no matter what. So it's a really good tandem.”
Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick.