Swayman gets nod tonight on road
Ullmark will debut on Friday against ex-team Sabres
When Bruce Cassidy said that there will be a goalie competition this year, the Bruins’ coach was not kidding.
Cassidy said he’ll go right back with his opening-night starter Jeremy Swayman for tonight’s road opener in Philadelphia. No, he’s not putting Linus Ullmark in mothballs. The veteran newcomer will make his official Bruins debut in his old home rink in Buffalo on Friday. But Swayman, simply, played well enough in the opener (27 saves on 28 shots) to earn the next start.
“For those two games, they were each going to play a game. We liked Sway’s game in the opener against Dallas on Saturday, so we’ll give him the net again,” said Cassidy on Tuesday. “It wasn’t necessarily that Ullmark’s absolutely going to play in Buffalo. It could have worked out that way, but that’s the way we’re going and he’s going to get Buffalo. He knows them better than anybody. And they probably know him better than anybody, so there’s obviously a flip side to both of those, so hopefully he’s ready to go.”
Ullmark did not have the greatest preseason and Swayman clearly beat him out for the opening-night start. He lost the two full games he played, both in extra time. In the first one, his own puck-handling gaffe led to the overtime winner for the Rangers while the skaters’ mistakes led to a 2-on-1 goal against Washington in the preseason finale.
The fact that Swayman has played well has allowed the B’s to be patient with Ullmark, whose season ended early last year with a lower body injury. But when you sign a guy to a fouryear, $20 million contract, you want to see some bang for the buck at some point.
Cassidy said that he has seen improvement in Ullmark’s play in practice.
“Better,” said Cassidy when asked about Ullmark’s practice performance. “A little less active, probably similar to how he plays, top of the crease.
“Listen, you see a lot of good pucks in practice so it can be tough on goalies. You’ve seen a lot of power plays down there with (Patrice Bergeron’s) group and they can rip it. But he looks like he’s battling there and he’s in a good place in the locker room, etc. I’m sure he wants the net, disappointed he didn’t get the start (in the opener), but as we said, it’s a competition. So when you get your chance, do what you need to stay in the net so that we don’t take you out. And that’s kind of the message to both of them.”
Right now, practice is all the B’s coaching staff has to go on in gauging Ullmark’s readiness. By the time he goes between the pipes at Keybank Center on Friday, he will have gone 16 days since his last start against Washington in the preseason, thanks to the B’s unusually sparse early season schedule.
Nick Foligno, who is establishing himself as a relentlessly positive presence in the B’s dressing room, said some extra practice time is not such a bad thing for a newcomer.
“We’re so blessed with two great goalies and Linus is huge part of that,” said Foligno. “It’s an adjustment, especially at that position. I’ve seen a lot of goalies coming in my days playing and it’s a lot. You’re adjusting to not only a new team, but a new lifestyle, a family, and it’s also such a high pressure position.
“I don’t think this time of him to getting to know us (isn’t bad) — I’m even benefiting from this little time. It’s annoying, absolutely. But it’s nice to have this practice time where I get to really know guys and you can feel really comfortable in games. You can go one or two ways. You can be annoyed by it, or you can embrace it. And I think he’s done a good job of embracing it, knowing he’s going to get his starts, he’s going to be a big part of this and we’re going to do whatever we can as teammates to bring him along. But he’s played long enough and I think he’s confident in his abilities that when he gets in there, he knows we’re going to be playing great in front of him and he’s going to do a great job.”