Things haven’t changed that much for Linus Ullmark over the past year.
After a first foray in Boston that saw the veteran netminder trade starts with Jeremy Swayman and cycle in and out of the club’s 1A position on the depth chart, Ullmark didn’t radically alter his off-season conditioning plan or augment his approach between the pipes.
There was no major shift in his ideology as a pro athlete tasked with one of the most stressful gigs in the sporting world.
Really, the only difference between the Ullmark of 2021 and the Ullmark of 2022 was …
“Well, I'm one year older,” he said with a smirk.
Yes, the inevitable effects of Father Time have their way with all of us, but Ullmark’s blunt declaration does hold some validity when it comes to charting out his strong start to the 2022-23 season.
With age, experience and reps come comfort and confidence, and the 29-year-old goalie isn’t lacking in any of those traits at this stage of his tenure in Boston.
"You just feel a little bit more comfortable off the ice and with the boys,” Ullmark said. “There's not a whole lot of new things, new personnel. You don't have to get to know everybody, you don't have to know the system, don't have to know the city and everything. Life, basically, I'm in a better spot."
These days, Ullmark isn’t rolling with the punches and navigating through the usual growing pains that most athletes face when moving to a new team. Going from a market and a rebuilding squad like Buffalo to the pressure cooker that is Boston was already going to be a major hurdle for Ullmark to clear, with the task of uprooting one’s family, finding a new home/school, etc. further complicating matters.
And yet, even though Ullmark isn’t trudging through another painful adjustment period, the same can’t be said for the skaters in front of him out on the ice.
On paper, the 2022-23 Bruins seem to have the makings of a powerhouse — and a potential juggernaut once both Charlie McAvoy and Brad Marchand return to game action.
Tied with Bruce Cassidy’s Vegas Golden Knights for the most points in the league (eight) out of the gate, the Bruins rank fifth in the NHL in 5v5 expected goals for per 60 minutes (3.08) and fourth in 5v5 expected goals against per 60 minutes (2.18) — a testament to Boston’s ability to both generate high-danger chances and negate them down the other end of the ice.
Still, there can often be a disparity between the chances a team is generating/giving up, and what actually ends up in the back of the net.
Even though Boston’s zone defense hasn’t changed all that much from previous seasons, Boston has been prone to more D-zone lapses and faults in the early going of the 2022-23 campaign — leading to a goals against per game rate (3.20) that has Boston sitting 15th overall in the league.
Boston’s offense (aside from Thursday’s snoozer against the Ducks) has allowed it to outpace plenty of its opponents. But given the defensive breakdowns that have sprouted up at critical junctures of games, the most important B’s player through five games has been Ullmark … and it hasn’t been particularly close.
“Thank God our goalies have been really good,” Jim Montgomery said ahead of Thursday’s eventual 2-1 shootout win over the Ducks. “Or else, I don't know if we win the first three games. We're up 3-0, it's 3-2 in Washington. We're up 3-1 against Arizona. It's 3-3. We let Florida climb back in the game twice when the game should have just ended.”
Thursday was a bit of a departure from Boston’s previous wins in that the Bruins’ lack of finishing this time around made for the slim margin for error, with Ullmark’s sound play in net (30 saves) keeping Boston afloat in a contest that was much closer than it needed to be.
Even at this early point of the season, every point is valuable for Boston as it looks to remain competitive without Marchand/McAvoy — and Ullmark’s five clutch saves in overtime (headlined by a breakaway stop on Ryan Strome) ensured that the B’s would not leave the TD Garden ice with just one point and a slew of regrets following a lackluster showing from most of the roster.
LINUS GOT THAT DOG IN HIM pic.twitter.com/2UmR1NOvna
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) October 21, 2022
"No, I do not feel (that),” Ullmark said of any added responsibility falling on his shoulders with Boston still without key cogs like McAvoy and Marchand. “Doesn't matter if we would have all those guys back or if they wouldn't play for the whole season. It doesn't change the fact that our job is to stop pucks. It doesn't matter which team you're playing on. That's the deal. That's what I came here to do. And I think the same goes for Sway."
For all of the early discourse last year that centered around Ullmark’s role on this roster, his $5 million cap hit and his ceiling on a contending team like Boston, Ullmark is quieting plenty of his critics in the early going of this season — ranking seventh among the 38 goalies with at least 100 minutes of ice time this year in save percentage (.938) and fourth in goals saved above average (3.97).
Ullmark’s strong play out of the gate has not only covered up for some of Boston’s early defensive lapses, but also a sluggish start for Jeremy Swayman (.816 save percentage). Even though Montgomery has noted multiple times this year that both Ullmark and Swayman will likely receive a pretty even split of reps, such a mandate can be harder to carry out when one goalie is in the midst of a hot streak.
“We got to evaluate that tomorrow,” Montgomery said when asked if Ullmark could earn another start on Saturday against Minnesota. “It's gonna be hard to go away from him, but things we got to consider is the 36 hours after he faced — he spent a lot of time in the crouch, because unfortunately, we defended more than we would have liked."
In a position as volatile as goaltending, it’s to be expected that Ullmark will eventually have to traverse through his own stretch of sub-standard play, much as Swayman is doing now.
“We've played three games now and it's been working well,” Ullmark said. “What is it? 78 of them left? So there's gonna be ups and downs — we can't take anything for granted. It could have easily been a 2-1 loss today if we didn't have Lady Luck on our side. We could have won 5-0. You never know in this league. You got to be prepared to go to battle every single night."
A lot can change in a hurry in the NHL. But at this current stage of the season, Ullmark has been everything that the Bruins have needed and more. For all of the talk of Boston struggling to stay afloat in the Atlantic in October/November, Ullmark has been the primary counter to such a scenario — serving as a much-needed life preserver for a team that desperately needs it during these choppy first few weeks.