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Swayman making it impossible to turn to rotation |
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Ty Anderson
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The Jeremy Swayman Show made its way to Sunrise on Monday night.
Riding the emotional high of last Saturday’s Game 7 overtime win over the Maple Leafs, the fact that the Bruins decided to stick with Swayman and his .950 save percentage was its own debate. For as good as Swayman has been this postseason, he’s officially ventured into the unknown here, with Monday’s Game 1 showdown representing his fifth start in 10 days. Something he had never done as an NHLer.
But Swayman’s Game 1 against Florida kicked off with a 10-bell stop less than a minute into the first period of the series. And as Swayman continued his magic throughout, his night finished with all stops on all but one 38 of 39 shots faced, and with Boston grabbing a 1-0 series lead by way of a 5-1 victory.
“[Swayman’s] battle level inspires and gives our bench a lot of energy,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery noted after the win.”
Just another day at the office for a 25-year-old netminder who has simply refused to give up the net to creasemate Linus Ullmark, even when the B’s have wanted to find a way to work the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner into the mix.
“Well, we talked about it as a staff and because of the emotional high of Game 7 and travel, we contemplated going with Ullmark [in Game 1] because we have so much confidence in him too,” Montgomery admitted following Boston’s 5-1 Game 1 victory over the Panthers. “But when a guy is playing that well it’s like, don’t outsmart yourself.”
Swayman's electric play has become commonplace through six starts this postseason, and same for his ability to laugh and smile through chaos in front of him.
“It seems like you can never rattle the guy,” Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei said of Swayman. “He’s always smiling, always singing along to songs. It’s relaxing. I see it and makes you remember it’s just a game. If he can go out there and play as well as he does and have fun, it makes you do the same.”
“We’re all so dedicated to each other [and] I wanted to come here to play for guys like Sway,” Brandon Carlo, who touched down in Florida shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday after being with his wife as she went into labor following Game 7, offered. “You know, just that guy in general. He puts the biggest smile on my face out there on the ice. I have so much fun playing with him. A lot of love between the two of us.”
it’s even hit the point where it takes the Bruins beating themselves for a team to beat Swayman. In the last 120 minutes of hockey, the only goals to beat Swayman came after Carlo wiped out along the wall and gave the Auston Matthews and William Nylander combo a 2-on-1 opportunity and after a brutal defensive-zone turnover from Charlie McAvoy put Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk on a 2-on-1.
Those duos really don’t need any extra help, but if you give it to them, they’ll take it.
Sticking to Swayman’s Game 1 alone and beyond his 38 saves, the Alaskan-born Swayman went a perfect 9-for-9 on high-danger shots faced. Swayman also finished Game 1 with an expected goals against of 3.31, but allowed just one by the night’s end.
For the playoffs as a whole, Swayman is now up to a ridiculous .955 save percentage — he somehow made his playoff-best .950 save percentage go up in this game — and has been downright absurd. Swayman’s also posted 10.72 goals saved above average this postseason (per NaturalStatTrick.com), which is not only tops among all playoff goalies, but a staggering 7.11 better than second-place Jake Oettinger and his 3.61 GSAA.
Moneypuck.com, meanwhile, has Swayman at 10.9 goals saved above expected, almost double that of second-place Igor Shesterkin and his 5.8 GSAE.
There’s just no way the Bruins can sit this guy right now. Even if they want to do it in the name of keeping him fresh or avoiding burnout. Or even with their trust in Ullmark.
The very idea of turning away from Swayman right now is simply preposterous given what he’s done to this point.
The sample size is still entirely too small to start planning anything beyond the very next game on the schedule, of course, but in an era that’s been defined by absurd goaltending runs, whether it was Tim Thomas in 2011 or Tuukka Rask in 2013 and 2019, Swayman is doing what those guys did back then.
He’s making it downright impossible to take the net away from him.
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