It would seem the Boston Bruins are starting to notice how tremendous Jeremy Swayman has been looking in net this season.
It might even feel a little funny to sing Swayman’s glorious praises on a night when he allowed five goals and the B’s ended up dropping a 5-4 overtime decision to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Monday night. But the Boston Bruins goaltender, and a penalty kill that did yeoman’s work, was one of the few reasons that the Bruins even finished with a point on a night when the Lightning looked explosive and dangerous when they had the puck.
The Bruins almost matched them goal-for-goal and certainly there were a few home ice calls going against them, but the bottom line was Tampa’s ability to score when they wanted to against a Boston group struggling to check them when the Bolts really ramped it up.
That happened in the first period when Swayman stood on his head making 18 saves, many of them on high-danger chances.
Jeremy Swayman makes this one-timer stop on Nikita Kucherov look easy: pic.twitter.com/zuL84l8DBg
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) November 21, 2023
That happened again in the final minute with the Lightning goalie pulled and Tampa Bay exerting a full-court press on the Bruins. Brad Marchand appeared to have a chance to shoot at the open net but instead moved the puck toward traffic in the neutral zone, and Derek Forbort failed on several attempts at long clears under heavy pressure.
It all turned into Nikita Kucherov throwing a slick backhanded feed through traffic cross-ice that Steve Stamkos hammered for a one-timer to tie things up.
⚡️ Steven Stamkos (#91) ties it up with 4 seconds left on the clock for his 7th goal of the season! Nikita Kucherov (#86) and Brandon Hagel (#38) pick up the assists.
— Future Bolts (@LightningProsp1) November 21, 2023
-@TBLightning#GoBolts pic.twitter.com/wgetxLij1x
“I think we need to develop a little more poise and understanding of time and score and how to close out games," said Jim Montgomery. "Obviously we gave up two leads in the third and you never want to do that.
"But I loved how resilient we were. We just kept coming back. The belief on the bench was always that we were going to be able to win that game."
Unfortunately for Montgomery and the Bruins, sometimes “belief” isn’t enough when there are too many penalties, too many breakdowns and a simple, strong play that can’t be made in crunch time. The Bruins have been one of the most penalized teams all season, and that problem cropped up again on Monday with seven minor penalties and six power play chances for the Lightning.
“It’s a strong suit of our game we want to keep building on, but above everything else you want to stay out of the box,” said Charlie Coyle, speaking of the penalty kill that went 5-for-6 during the loss. “I think we took too many penalties that game. Those little minors are going to cost us, especially against a team like that. We want to make sure we’re doing the right things and build different parts of our game, and that’s very important to us.”
Still, Swayman got a piece of the game-tying Stamkos sizzler and that showed just how locked in he was despite facing 46 shots when it was all over.
“I expect to play every game,” said Swayman. “That’s how my mentality is. That’s the way I want to prepare. I was fired up when I got this opportunity, so I wanted to seize it, right? It’s been over a year since I’d been able to do that, so I was really excited about that. But it doesn’t change my mindset moving forward.”
It was the first time all season either Boston Bruins goaltender has played in consecutive games, and perhaps was a statement of confidence in a 24-year-old Swayman that’s still top-5 in goals against average (2.09) and save percentage (.933) despite the big overall number surrendered during a wild one in Tampa Bay.
“Linus needed a little bit of maintenance and Swayman has been playing so well, so we were not going to risk anything,” said Montgomery, when asked why the Bruins netminder got the call against Tampa.
That should give everybody a bit of a window into the breakout season we are seeing from Swayman, and the opportunity that’s still there for either goalie to seize the upper hand in playing time with an extended hot stretch. It should also give everybody a window into how Swayman is being viewed this season after clearly putting in the work last summer, sticking around Boston and working out with the Boston Bruins strength, conditioning and performance staff.
That dedication has turned into stone-cold results for Swayman and the Bruins this season, as evidenced in the 41 saves he did make against Tampa Bay. Many of them, like a shorthanded breakaway stop on Brandon Hagel, were high-quality saves against the many elite offensive players that Tampa Bay can throw out on the ice at any given time.
Now, let’s not get things twisted with Swayman getting two starts in a row. This doesn’t mean it’s time to charge up the Linus Ullmark Trade Rumor machine and fire off more fictitious deals with the Edmonton Oilers.
This Boston Bruins team is enjoying their success right now in major part to the elite goaltender play they are receiving every single game, and that means both Swayman and Ullmark are integral to their 12-1-3 start to the season. That isn’t going to change in this transition season away from Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci while in a salary cap crunch, so there is no sensible scenario where either of those B’s goaltenders are removed from the equation regardless of how well either of them plays.
This summer that calculus might change completely if it looks like the 24-year-old Swayman is ready to handle a 55-60 game workload with perhaps a less-experienced understudy like Brandon Bussi ready to be a backup option.
Right now, though, it looks like goaltender might be the single most important position to the Boston Bruins success on a nightly basis, and Monday night’s loss in Tampa was a reminder that there is work to be done in other areas while Swayman and Ullmark keep them competitive in every single game this season.