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Bruins keeping goalie plans a mystery for Game 2

April 22, 2024, 7:58 PM ET [15 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The game within the games will only continue for Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery.

After what was three straight days of secrecy regarding the Bruins’ plans in net only for it to be Jeremy Swayman who led the Bruins out to the ice and posted a 35-of-36 line in a Game 1 win, Montgomery found a new way to say nothing when it came to his team’s plans in goal for Monday’s Game 2 at TD Garden.

“It’s funny you ask… I don’t like keeping you guys in the dark,” Montgomery said following his team’s morning skate. “Do any of you play Wordle? OK, the starting goalie tonight has two vowels in his first and last name.”

The joke within the answer there is that both Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark have two vowels in their first and last names.

In essence, the Bruins are going to keep it a mystery until the pregame warmup, which will get underway sometime around 6:30 p.m., and it appears that that will be the case throughout the series based on Montgomery’s follow-up answers.

“I don’t know why we would divulge information,” Montgomery said. “Like if you’re preparing for a game, there’s part of the goalie that are part of your pre-scout. So, that’s an advantage for us if you don’t know who’s starting.

“I don’t tell my wife. I’m not telling you guys.”

Speaking in the immediate aftermath of Boston’s Game 1 win, Montgomery admitted that it would be tough for the club to go away from Swayman after his 35-save outing. But between the regular season and playoffs, the Bruins have alternated back and forth between Swayman and Ullmark for 27 straight games now.

But the Bruins have wisely kept all their options when it comes to their playoff plans in goal. While many have pressed about a strict rotation, the Bruins have talked about it with the constant caveat of “performance and results will dictate” a lot of this. And one could argue that Swayman’s Game 1 performance has indeed earned him his first string of consecutive starts since Feb. 19-21.

Including his Game 1 figures, Swayman is 4-0-0 against the Leafs in 2023-24, and has posted an impressive .962 save percentage over that four-game span, with saves on 128 of 133 total shots faced.
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