Swayman nabs 7th Player Award
Goalie part of unique netminding situation
Not every season produces a legitimate candidate for NESN’s 7th Player Award, given annually to the player who performs above and beyond expectations.
BRUINS NOTEBOOK
But this Bruins’ season has produced a few and rookie goalie Jeremy Swayman
emerged from the crowed pack to nab the trophy, beating out such solid candidates as Erik Haula, Curtis Lazar and Jake DeBrusk.
Going into Friday’s regular season finale in Toronto, Swayman had posted 23-13-3 record with a .915 save percentage and a 2.37 goals against average. He has the most wins of any rookie goalie in the league this season.
It has been a very different year for the Bruins’ netminding picture. Stalwart veteran Tuukka Rask was coming off hip surgery and attempting a comeback. When Rask got up to speed in January, Swayman was the odd man out and was sent down to Providence. It did not affect his development one iota. And when Rask’s body would not allow him to continue his career and force his retirement, Swayman was brought back up to the bigs and has played very well. At one point, he ripped off a 9-0-1 streak that helped the B’s solidify their playoff position.
With Linus Ullmark’s excellent play of late, it appears as though the veteran will get the nod for Game 1 in the first round of the playoffs. But this will not be like it was the last decade when, no matter who the backup was, he was going to give way to Rask once the post-season began.
Swayman could very well be called upon to win some playoff games. Neither the rookie Swayman nor Ullmark have ever started a playoff game. Swayman saw mop-up duty in Game 5 against the Islanders last season when the wear and tear of the Rask’s hip injury started to show in his performance.
“I think it will be more open-ended than any other year,” said coach Bruce Cassidy, who has yet to officially announce a starter for Game 1 “Will we run with one guy? Absolutely, if he’s on. We’re not going to out-think ourselves there. The discussion will be with Bob will be, we’re playing every second night and if it starts running, is the guys capable, is he going to be at his best to be able to handle that? Even sometimes when it looks like things are going well, you have to consider that so you’re not putting the goalie at a disadvantage later.
What’s the right time to do that is always going to be the tough call. If a guy’s not on, we’re not afraid to go to the other guy because we’ve seen him play well, so that’s also in our back pocket. That could be tough for the starter sometimes.
“But that’s the way our year’s worked out. Sticking to what we’ve done well throughout the year is using both goaltenders so we don’t want to completely blow that up. It’s going to be a decision in the moment is the easiest to say it. It could go one way or the other to be perfectly honest. Just know that if we have the run we want to, neither one of these goalies has done that at this time of the year so we have to be very mindful of that.”
Such a plan of attack will require a conversation with both goalies.
“We will sit them down and walk through different scenarios without clouding
their heads. They are goalies after all,” joked Cassidy. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves either. How about we stay in the moment. Whoever is in the net, starter for Game 1, let’s make sure you’re at your best and we do whatever we can to get you ready. Then the backup has to prepare himself to go in. That’s where the conversation will start and then we can talk about a little bit down the road so all of a sudden they’re not like ‘Well, what do you mean I’m not playing?’”
The lines of communication will require some honesty, from the goalies as well as the coaching staff. It’s hindsight now, but whether it was the right thing to do to work Swayman in during the playoffs to maintain Rask’s health last year is certainly debatable.
“That’s where it’s up to Jeremy and Linus to be honest
with us. I suspect most guys will want to stay in there, just like any other position,” said Cassidy. “Nobody is usually 100% this year and when the playoffs start, that accelerates in a downward way. Nobody finishes the playoffs feeling perfect, so I suspect there will have to be a little bit of that baked in. We went through a little bit of that with Tuukka last year at the end. We’ll have to make sure we make the right call and ask them to be honest with is.”
This and that
Starting the night three points behind the Lightning with two games left, the most likely first round opponent is Carolina. The Hurricanes beat the B’s all three games this season by a combined score of 16-1. Not surprisingly, Charlie McAvoy said the playoffs are a clean slate.
“You don’t take anything from (those games), the same way if we had played them and went 4-0 and blew the doors off them,” said McAvoy. “If you think you’d not see a different team, you’d be wrong. There’s nothing from the regular season that you really should take into the playoffs with you. It’s a new season. Anything can happen.”...
An end of era is upon the Bruins. Longtime trainer Don DelNegro is retiring after this season after 29 years with the B’s. Prior to the morning skate on Thursday, the players presented Del Negro with a golf cart emblazoned with the Bruins logo. Nice touch for a good guy . ...
Cassidy said that the regulars who won’t play in Toronto in the regular season finale on Friday will not travel with the team, opting to give those players “a true maintenance day.”