Swayman is giving the B’s options
Rookie will make his third straight start this afternoon
Bill Parcells manufactured nearly as many clipworthy quotes as he did wins in his Hall of Fame coaching career. With the emergence of the Bruins’ new goaltending darling Jeremy Swayman, one in particular has come to mind.
“A coach wouldn’t throw you to the wolves,” said Parcells, “if he didn’t think you had some wolf in you.”
Well, it seems like the B’s are sensing some of those wolf-like qualities in the 22year-old Swayman. Coach Bruce Cassidy announced Friday that Swayman, who has stopped 71 of 75 shots in the first two games of his NHL career, will get the nod for his third straight game when the B’s play the Flyers in Philadelphia this afternoon.
Fellow rookie Daniel Vladar, who will get the start on Sunday against Washington if Tuukka Rask is not yet ready, has also been very good in his four starts in Boston. Swayman, on the other hand, has given off the air that there’s something special about him, both with his play on the ice and demeanor off it. And the emergence of these two youngsters has suddenly made Monday’s trade deadline a little more intriguing.
Though Rask’s legion of deluded detractors would love to see him gone, it would be foolhardy to trade him. He’s a year removed from being a Vezina runner-up and two from Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. There’s even a question if Rask, in the final year of his contract, would go if traded. In a conversation with the Herald last October, he said he had no desire to play anywhere else but Boston and hoped to play for one or two more years until the next guy is ready. Now, a person can change his mind, and he made no threat of retiring if traded, but he seemed pretty set on that stance.
Then there’s Jaroslav Halak. Halak (on the COVID protocol list for the last five days) has been a very good 1B to Rask’s 1A. But it would not be as big of a gamble if GM Don Sweeney bet that Swayman could do the job Halak has performed than pushing all the chips forward on the idea that he can replace Rask. If the AHL playoffs are canceled, of which there have been rumblings, then there is even more of a reason to keep Swayman in Boston. It would seem doubtful that there would be much of a market for the 35-year-old netminder at this stage of his career. But if he could help a bigger deal get done, the B’s would have to consider it.
There is also the chance that, if GM Don Sweeney wanted to take a bigger cut at the plate, he could dangle Vladar, though now would not seem to be the time to be moving young, promising goalies with the advancing ages of both Rask and Halak.
As for Swayman, the concern for putting too much on his plate too soon is understandable. The Flyers have a one-time can’t-misskid in Carter Hart that they’re trying to get back on track after a disastrous start this season. Bruins’ fans of a certain vintage remember the story of Mike Moffat, who briefly looked like the next great goalie as a 20year-old in the 1982 playoffs, but he only played 17 more NHL games after that. There are plenty of other examples of too much, too soon.
On the other hand, the team could be robbing itself of a great opportunity if indeed Swayman is as rare of a bird as he seems and it was overprotective of him.
With that in mind, the B’s are letting him run with the ball, at least for now with the vets unavailable.
“There is a little bit of that,” Cassidy said. “We want to put the best guy in there to give us the best chance to win. We had this discussion when Vladdy went in in Pittsburgh. There were both sides. Some people felt that maybe Sway was a little ahead, others felt Vladdy deserved the opportunity. We felt at the end of the day we couldn’t go wrong with either guy. We ended up going with Vladdy. And we can see now that it’s accurate. Both guys have gone in there and played well and given us a chance to win. I’m pleased with both. It’s great for the organization to have that depth going forward, and in the moment right now because we’ve got two guys that aren’t able to play that we’ve relied on for years that have given us great goaltending. So it’s nice to be able to not lose that piece. It’s an identity of our team. We want to be hard to play against, play good team defense and you need stops to do that. We’ve never relied on our goalie to just flat-out win games for us, but stretches of the game you have to be better than the other guy when you’re team is not executing well enough. They’ve been able to do that, the both of them. Very happy for them. Good for Sway. Obviously, we wouldn’t be running him back out there if he wasn’t performing like he is. We didn’t know. We had a good idea with his resume but you never know until you take that next step. So far, so good.”
Cassidy also believes the youthful exuberance of both Swayman and Vladar have given the team a bounce. Since Vladar made his first appearance on March 16 in a 2-1 win in Pittsburgh, the B’s are 7-2-2. It hasn’t always been pretty, but more often than not, the B’s are inching their way forward, even with significant losses among the skaters.
“I think our guys do have a little juice from seeing these young guys go in there and perform well. Of course, there are a little bit of nerves but for the most part they take the ball and run with it, and be grateful and respectful in their responses after. I think it’s awesome,” Cassidy said. “They’re going to be great Bruins if that’s the way it plays out. They’re just happy to help the team win. So yes, I think it has helped us knowing that even though these guys are young, they’re back there getting the job done and giving us a chance to win. Because you don’t know. We’ve had two older guys for a long time and you just assume they’re going to be in there and give you a chance to win. When you have younger guys in there, you’re really not sure. They’ve done a really good job and I think our guys have fed off it.”
And they’ve given the B’s options in net. We’ll find out by Monday if they exercise any of them.