With Jeremy Swayman still unsigned as we get into the second week of NHL training camp with the Bruins, a ton of curious eyes are beginning to look a little more intently at the B’s puck-stopping guys still left standing: Joonas Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi.
Many are wondering how a Swayman-less goalie tandem could potentially perform for a Bruins team with sky-high expectations after adding some big pieces to a group that was good enough for the Stanley Cup playoffs last season.
The rookie netminder Bussi, who would be likely tapped for backup duty if a Swayman holdout extends into the regular season, has been just okay, and struggled a bit with rebounds while giving up four goals on 32 shots in a preseason loss to the Rangers where the B’s got stormed a bit.
The good news is that Bussi will be, at best, expected to be an NHL backup goalie capable of playing 20-25 NHL games in a season.
But Korpisalo has been a different story after looking extremely solid in each of his preseason appearances, including making 37 saves in a 3-2 overtime preseason loss to the Flyers on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center. Truthfully, the Finnish netminder was one of the biggest reasons the game even got to overtime after making 17 saves in the second period, and then holding down the fort in the third period and overtime when the B’s were outshot by a 12-5 margin by the Flyers.
He was aggressive, challenging shooters, playing the puck when necessary and tracking the puck well even as the Flyers did a fairly good job of getting traffic around him against an overwhelmed Boston D-corps that included youngsters like Frederic Brunet and Jackson Edward.
Korpi keeps it out 🙅♂️ pic.twitter.com/7Vnf7XwKNS
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) September 29, 2024
Eventually, exciting Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov was able to snipe one past Korpisalo for the overtime winner for Philly, but prior to that the Bruins netminder made a ton of saves for a Bruins team that was barely hanging on to a 2-2 tie. Korpisalo now has stopped 44-of-47 shots in the preseason for a .936 save percentage and looks like he’s up to the challenge to be Boston’s main netminder if Swayman doesn’t come back into the hold.
“It doesn’t change my job,” said Korpisalo, when asked about his approach in training camp with Swayman not in the mix as of right now. “Quite frankly, I just want to focus on my job. Of course, [Swayman]is a great guy. I got to work with him before camp. He’s a great guy and a great goalie, but I’m just focusing on myself.
“There are no shortcuts here, and everyone’s taking it seriously. There’s a winning culture. You can see it every day. Every year, you have a chance to win with this team. That’s what they’ve built in this organization. Winning is expected.”
The bottom line is that Korpisalo looks like a guy that could keep the B’s afloat for as long as Swayman decides to lock horns with the Bruins in negotiations.
That truly lightens the pressure on Boston’s front office to bend toward whatever it is that Swayman is looking for in contract negotiations and could set up a situation where the Bruins gain back significant leverage should they find success with a Korpisalo and Bussi tandem during the regular season. Of course, it could all go in a different direction entirely if Korpisalo can’t keep up the high level of play, but he looked very ready for the challenge against a Flyers group that iced a pretty solid NHL lineup for the exhibition game.
It’s still obviously not the ideal goaltending solution for the Bruins and a Korpisalo/Bussi tandem leaves them shy of being a Stanley Cup contender in this humble hockey writer’s opinion, but anybody expecting the goaltending situation to fall apart without Swayman is not getting what they were looking for right now.
Instead, it looks like Boston is going to be the exact right place for Korpisalo to rehab his game after struggling in Ottawa last season, and maybe, just maybe, landing him as a throw-in/salary dump in the Linus Ullmark deal was one of the most fortunate things that happened to the Original Six organization this summer after all.
It’s funny how the hockey world works sometimes, isn’t it?
ONE-TIMERS
* One player who’s enjoying a truly excellent training camp to this point is Mark Kastelic, the fourth line grinder acquired in the Linus Ullmark trade with the Ottawa Senators has been exactly as advertised. He’s thrown big hits, he’s shown good skating speed for a 6-foot-4 heavy forward and he’s been more than willing to drop the gloves and show he’ll be a player that will drag Boston into the fight.
He's looked good skating with Johnny Beecher as both forwards are expected to be paired together on the fourth line, and also with Riley Duran as Max Jones has missed time with injury in the early stage of the preseason.
In other words, he’s shown that he may be exactly what the B’s fourth line has been searching for since they weren’t able to retain Garnet Hathaway a couple of seasons ago.
Gotta say, Bruins fans are going to be big fans of Mark Kastelic’s game on the fourth line based on what I’ve seen in the preseason pic.twitter.com/5s7XxWL4qT
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) September 27, 2024
“It’s part of what I bring to the table I try to be a good teammate and look out for my teammates,” said Kastelic after Sunday’s game. “It’s something natural I have within me. I don’t like to be pushed around out there. I don’t think any of us do. I want to show it to everybody. I’m not afraid to get physical and be in the mix of everything.”
Truthfully, Kastelic feels like the kind of in-your-face player that has made the Florida Panthers so successful in the postseason over the last couple of seasons, and his arrival signals that perhaps Boston is really catching on as to what is working right now when it comes to the gauntlet that is the Stanley Cup playoffs.
* Congrats to Elias Lindholm on the birth of his son, which comes amidst him missing the first week of Boston Bruins training camp with a nagging undisclosed injury.
Luka Lindholm definitely has a really nice ring to it.
From Elias Lindholm’s insta. He’s been out due to undisclosed injury, but congrats to him and his family. pic.twitter.com/voTGNJaZvx
— Bruins Cap Space (@BruinsCapSpace) September 26, 2024
While it wasn’t been ideal that Boston’s No. 1 center has been out in his first spate of practices with his new team, it’s also given the Bruins the chance to look at guys like Matt Poitras in the middle of David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha when otherwise that might not have happened.