Jeremy Swayman was strong against the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 24 in the Boston Bruins' win but has struggled in his last three starts.
Linus Ullmark relieved the rookie in the 6-4 defeat and has shown a bit of consistency of late, which is what the Bruins certainly need given the rough patch Swayman is dealing with. Ullmark will start between the pipes Friday night against Tampa Bay.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said a few times during the course of the 2021-22 NHL season that Swayman was ahead of Ullmark in the competition to be the No. 1 goalie. Swayman went on a tear after being called out by his coach and even began to put himself in the conversation for the Calder Trophy.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are a month away, and the Bruins will need Swayman to be on top of his game if they want to make a deep run. He'll also need to get some more reps as the regular season winds down, but Cassidy wants to go with who's been more consistent of late.
"Some of the havoc that seemed to be happening at the beginning of the year has settled down. Just more under control in every area," Cassidy told reporters after Friday's practice, per team-provided audio.
"They've both played well for the most part. Linus probably has been a little more consistent than Jeremy of late. Sway's been pretty steady, little bit of a blip here, we're going to let him play through it. Hopefully he finds it again and we go right down to the wire with good choices in that regard.
"Thinking ahead to the playoffs, who would be the guy, we're undecided right now. Could be both. Not sure yet."
It's a good problem to have two capable goalies in the playoffs.
Bruins-Lightning begins at 7 p.m. ET on NESN.
