Boston Bruins Coach Jim Montgomery said he’s leaning toward giving Linus Ullmark the start on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers. But if the Bruins can extend their home record to 10-0, the goalie hugs will be back.
While Montgomery understandably is inclined to ride Ullmark with the way he’s playing, Jeremy Swayman will be back in uniform on Thursday, a little more than two weeks after he suffered what appeared to be a devastating left knee injury. But as has been the case for the charmed Bruins this year, Swayman is back a little earlier than expected and Keith Kinkaid was returned to Providence.
Swayman said he’ll be ready whenever his number is called.
“Born ready, baby,” said Swayman, who played at UMaine.
The injury that occurred on Nov. 1 in Pittsburgh did not look pretty. Swayman had entered the game after Ullmark was yanked with the Bruins down 5-2. With the play in the Bruins’ end, Patrice Bergeron lost his footing and crashed into Swayman. His left leg hit the post and hyperextended rather unnaturally. As he needed help to get off the ice, it appeared that Swayman would be out for a while. But 16 days later, Swayman, with two full practices under his belt, will be back in uniform on Thursday.
He knows he was fortunate.
“I watched it afterwards. Yeah, just a freak play,” said Swayman. “That’s what happens in this game and I’m lucky it hasn’t happened before and I hope it never happens again, right? But luckily those posts release at a certain point and it definitely saved me. I’m lucky that it wasn’t worse.”
Was he surprised he was able to get back so quickly?
“Yes and no,” said Swayman. “I knew that I was going to be hitting it hard as soon as I got back here and doing whatever I can to get back sooner. I wanted to play yesterday. That was my mindset. That’s just what I wanted to and the medical staff here did everything in their power to do that and I couldn’t be more happy to be here.”
While he was lucky with the outcome, Swayman was not so fortunate with the timing. While Ullmark is playing at a Vezina-caliber level this season, Swayman’s start was not as hot. Having played in just four games, including his abbreviated stint in Pittsburgh, Swayman is 2-1 with an .878 save percentage with 3.45 GAA.
But in his start before he relieved Ullmark in Pittsburgh, he had what was easily his best performance of the season in a 5-1 win over Detroit, when he stopped 28-of-29 shots. Unfortunately, the injury prevented him from building on that start.
“I can just control what I can control,” said Swayman. “Obviously I wanted to take the reins and make sure I could help the team win and feeling good about it. But regardless of that, this time off has helped me reset and make sure my mind’s in the right place, seeing plays and watching a lot of hockey. I want to get back and hopefully not miss a beat.”
When Swayman gets his next start is to be determined, but it should be soon. While Ullmark has earned more than 50 percent of the starts at this point, Montgomery doesn’t want to overwork him.
“It’s hard,” said Montgomery. “Linus has done such a good job playing minutes like a No. 1 and Swayman’s been out for a while and he’s had to carry the load. It’s nice to know that he can carry the load, we just don’t want him carrying that big of a load. And I wouldn’t want Swayman carrying the load like that either.”
JUDGING FROM from the line rushes in Wednesday’s practice, David Pastrnak will remain with Bergeron and Brad Marchand for the time being while Jake DeBusk will stay on the right side with Taylor Hall and David Krejci.
“I think it’s worked fairly well. We’ve had some good shifts in the (attacking) zone for a while. We were able to get a five-on-five there last game (Connor Clifton’s goal coming off a Hall feed),” said DeBrusk. “Obviously I’ve played with Krech before so it’s nice to be back with him. I haven’t really had anyone with Krech on the left side like Hallsy, so it’s pretty exciting. I just want to try to help balance the lines and make it so we’re a threat out there and give those guys pucks with retrievals in the offensive zone. I think we just need more reps, honestly. I haven’t played much with Taylor, so I think we just need to use our speed to generate more chances and shots and play aggressive.”
MONTGOMERY HAD defensemen quarterbacking both his power-play units as opposed to the five-forward look he’d been employing for a couple of games.
Charlie McAvoy was with Patrice Bergeron, DeBrusk, Pastrnak and Marchand and Hampus Lindholm was with the second unit of Krejci, Pavel Zacha, Hall and Nick Foligno.
He did work a five-forward unit with Krejci subbing in for McAvoy when the five-on-three PP was practiced.
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