It's graduation season in New England.
With mid-May comes soon-to-be graduates at local high schools, colleges and universities eagerly awaiting their final marks and calculating their GPAs. Usually, there are Bruins and Celtics playoff runs to latch onto as the summer awaits, the Red Sox get into the thick of Major League Baseball's slog of a schedule and the Patriots continue offseason programs.
The Celtics crammed the night before but passed their midterm exam against the Philadelphia 76ers. The Bruins, however, did not graduate to the conference finals or the second round, flunking a seven-game pop quiz in the first round after passing the regular season with flying colors.
Let's see how the Bruins graded out this season, starting with Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman in goal:
Linus Ullmark – Regular Season: A+ / Playoffs: C
Ullmark had one of the best regular seasons by a goaltender since Tim Thomas in 2010-11, typically the bar around these parts. Thomas finished his year with a .938 save percentage, a 2.00 goals-against average, nine shutouts and a 35-11-9 record in 57 games, going on to win the Vezina Trophy (after the Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup, of course). The final line on Ullmark was a .938 save percentage a 1.89 GAA, two shutouts and a 40-6-1 mark in 49 appearances. He is the favorite for the Vezina (the other nominees are Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg, and Ilya Sorokin, Islanders).
Among qualified goaltenders (min. 25 games), Ullmark was second in the league in goals saved above expected (42.4; Thomas was first at 39.6) and first in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes (.883; Thomas was second at .706), according to MoneyPuck. Ullmark was fourth in high-danger save percentage at 5-on-5 (.871; Thomas was second at .880), per Natural Stat Trick.
Ullmark's path to the Vezina is aided by the absence of Nashville's Juuse Saros, who had a strong case of his own, beating the top three finalists in goals-saved above expected with 46.7.
Everything went right for Ullmark in the regular season. He was Boston's rock, frequently making highlight-reel saves, and he even scored a goal. Most importantly, he remained healthy.
The playoffs were a different story.
After exiting his final appearance of the regular season in some discomfort out of precaution, Ullmark was sharp with a 32-save performance in Game 1 against Florida. He rebounded from a rough Game 2 with 31 saves in Game 3 and 43 in Game 4. It was downhill from there though, whether it was the gift-wrapped turnover in overtime of Game 5 for the six spot he let up in Game 6.
It didn't help that the Swede had dealt with his heaviest workload of the season as the Bruins defenestrated their goalie rotation for seemingly no good reason. There were reports of illness earlier in the series as well as a "debilitating injury" after Boston was eliminated, but the Bruins and Ullmark heavily downplayed the severity of whatever unspecified ailment plagued the goaltender.
Whether it was fatigue, injury or performance, Ullmark was not up to snuff down the stretch in the first round. Something just didn't look right with him, and it all came to a head in Game 6, the first time he had made six starts in a row all year and the first time he gave up six goals. He finished the playoffs with an .896 save percentage, a 3.33 GAA and just .267 goals saved above expected per 60 minutes. His high-danger save percentage dipped slightly to .833.
Swayman got the keys for Game 7. It was the second year in a row that Boston had to turn to Swayman over Ullmark.
Making $5 million for two more seasons with modified trade protection, there's the possibility, no matter how great or small, that the Bruins sell high, given their salary cap woes.
He aced the regular season, but his playoff report card won't be going on the fridge after a combination of letdowns from him and the coaching staff.
Jeremy Swayman – Regular Season: A- / Playoffs: C+
Swayman was also among the best goaltenders in the NHL by season's end.
The 24-year-old had a rough start to the season, appearing destined for a classic sophomore slump after finishing fifth in voting for the Calder Trophy in 2021-22.
He struggled with consistency early on, posting an .887 save percentage through his first 10 games. An ugly lower-body injury certainly didn't help things when Patrice Bergeron inadvertently collided with Swayman's left knee while the netminder was in the splits on Nov. 1 in Pittsburgh. There were still ups and downs after returning just over two weeks later.
But from mid-December and on, Swayman turned it around. He was nearly as dominant as Ullmark, posting a .929 save percentage over his final 27 games, third in the league behind Filip Gustavsson and Ullmark among goaltenders to play at least 20 games in that span.
He finished the year fourth in GAA (2.27) and save percentage (.920), putting up the third-most shutouts (four) to go along with a 24-6-4 mark in 37 appearances. Swayman sat eighth in goals saved above expected (24.0) and third in goals saved above expected per 60 (.715). His .870 high-danger save percentage was tied for fifth. If not for being the "1B" behind Ullmark, Swayman might have been in the Vezina conversation as well.
Boston had turned to a pure goalie rotation in the backend of the regular season, and it served both netminders exceptionally well, keeping them optimized.
After the Bruins deviated from their successful recipe in the playoffs, leaving Ullmark cooked and Swayman in an impossible spot going into a do-or-die Game 7 against Florida with Boston staring down one of the greatest collapses in the sport's history.
Could he have been better in Game 7? Sure. He finished the playoffs with a .750 high-danger save percentage and minus-0.17 goals-saved above average after a few minutes of garbage time in Game 4 and a full Game 7.
He let up a softy after Dmitry Orlov completely lost track of Brandon Montour to open the scoring. He would have made the save on Montour's equalizer with under a minute to go, if not for an unfortunate deflection of Charlie McAvoy's stick through the only puck-sized opening down low. Maybe Swayman would have been in position ever so slightly more quickly if he hadn't taken swipes at Matthew Tkachuk in front of the net.
I'm not sure he ever saw Carter Verhaeghe's series-winning snipe to the short side in overtime with Tkachuk parked in front of the crease. At the end of the day, Swayman was fine in that game. He made a pair of season-saving stops in the overtime, first on a Tkachuk breakaway and then on a 2-on-1 with Verhaeghe.
Most importantly, the Bruins had a chance to win, move on and ideally return to their rotation.
He's due a new contract and a raise as a restricted free agent this summer.
Like Ullmark, Swayman will proudly show off the high marks on his regular season. He did the best he could on the pop quiz in Game 7 after missing a week of classes.
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Lindholm played with a broken foot
Hampus Lindholm revealed in an interview with Stockholm-based newspaper Aftonbladet that he did not join Sweden for the IIHF World Championship due to dealing with a broken foot.
“I found out this morning that I have been playing with a fracture in one foot for the past month,” Lindholm said via text.
The blue-liner's play dropped off significantly in the playoffs after a regular season worthy of Norris Trophy consideration. While his underlying numbers were strong, it was easy to discern that something was off via the eye test. His delay of game penalty in Game 6, which allowed Florida to tie it immediately after Jake DeBrusk scored a go-ahead goal was a sign something was off. Not one to go off the glass and out, Lindholm shanked it out of play without any Panthers applying pressure.
Lindholm blocked a shot against the Detroit Red Wings on March 11. He did not play the second half of that weekend's back-to-back before missing March 26th in Carolina with a lower-body injury.
He downplayed his status at breakup day two weeks ago.
“I’d say I was fine,” Lindholm said. “Everyone has bumps and bruises this time of year. There’s no excuses on that stuff. I think even if you were to have something linger like we had guys play through stuff. It’s just that time of year.”