Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery will pitch goaltender Jeremy Swayman against Vezina favorite Linus Ullmark for Sunday’s Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.
The move follows back-to-back defeats by the President’s Trophy winners who erased a 3-1 series lead, including a Game 6 slump in which Ullmark scored 4 goals in the third period.
Bruins fans wouldn’t have expected to be eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs after the most dominant regular season in NHL history, but that’s exactly where they find themselves thanks in much to the struggles of Ullmark.
After a superhuman season in which the Swede conceded just 1.89 goals per game with a .938 save percentage and a 40-6-1 record, Ullmark was solved with regularity by Florida.
The 29-year-old has a relatively disappointing 3.33 GAA in the playoffs and has saved just 0.896% of the shots he’s faced. Even before his side’s chaotic 7-5 collapse in Game 6, Ullmark conceded 6 goals in Games 2 and 4 on just 25 shots in a home overtime loss in Game 5.
Swayman enters the fray after facing just one shot in the series in a Game 4 appearance. While he didn’t quite replicate Ullmark’s dominance in the regular season, Swayman had his own impressive 2022-23 campaign, winning 24 contests with a GAA of 2.27 and a save percentage of 0.920.
In 6 career playoff starts, the American goaltender is 3-3 with a 2.64 GAA and .907 save percentage. Victory and skill in Game 7 would all but guarantee Swayman’s spot in the Boston net for what would be a second-round date with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For Ullmark, the hook is a stern reminder that no one is bulletproof in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Montgomery has a greater obligation to win the series than to appease any player, even one as effective as his number one goaltender.
The Bruins will look to beat the Panthers at 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday when they return to TD Garden, where they are 1-2 in the series.
