Certainly, the Boston Bruins wouldn’t be playing Dan Vladar on Tuesday if he wasn’t ready to handle an NHL game.
But beyond just playing ability, you have to do right by your players, and that’s what the Bruins are doing here.
The Bruins knew for a while that there was a good chance Vladar or Jeremy Swayman would be playing Tuesday. Tuukka Rask has been out since hurting himself last Sunday, and Jaroslav Halak has been playing every game since. And with a Monday-Tuesday back-to-back against the Pittsburgh Penguins on the schedule, somebody else was going to have to step in.
Bruce Cassidy announced Tuesday morning it would be Vladar in net. It’s the right call.
Neither player has made an NHL start. This is Swayman’s first pro season, while Vladar — who is on his second pro contract — only appeared in mop-up duty during the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
For the life of Vladar’s pro career, the Bruins have had a good goaltending situation with Rask and either Halak or Anton Khudobin. Thus, Vladar simply hasn’t had the chance to play at the NHL level. Getting tossed into a lost game against the Bolts back in August is by no means a fair basis to judge the player.
He’s put in his time. He deserves this.
Recency bias might prompt this decision to come as something of a surprise. After all, Swayman a year ago was a Hobey Baker finalist, and has been lights out in the AHL so far. But last season Vladar was arguably the best netminder in the American League, posting a .936 save percentage and 1.79 goals against average with a 14-7-1 record. He also had three shutouts.
Letting Swayman jump Vladar simply wouldn’t send the right message.
The Bruins are loaded with goaltending prospects between Swayman, Vladar and Kyle Keyser. Eventually, there was going to be some sort of logjam for Boston to figure out. Water will find its level and we’ll know each goalie’s capabilities as a pro, but there is a process of sorts that the Bruins theoretically should follow in terms of determining the pecking order.
In their first test, the Bruins made the right call.
