The Bruins have a good problem when it comes to their goalies.
Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark have been a huge part of Boston’s success this season, helping the Black and Gold to a 54-11-5 record going into Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. Ullmark leads the NHL with a 1.95 save percentage and .937 save percentage and is the runaway favorite to win the Vezina Trophy, while Swayman is fourth in the league in save percentage and is coming off back-to-back shutouts.
“I don’t know if they could do much better than they’ve done,” head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters after Thursday’s morning skate. “It’s working really well. I don’t have a more intelligent answer or deeper answer.”
The Bruins already have punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs, so it would make sense if Montgomery wanted to give whichever goalie he plans to use some extra rest as the regular season winds down.
But it’s not quite clear what direction Montgomery will go, and he didn’t rule out a possible platoon situation.
“We would have no issues with it,” Montgomery told reporters. “I don’t know if we’re gonna do that. I think we’ll start with one of them, most likely Linus is gonna start the first game. Then we’ll see how it goes game to game from there. I’m not gonna commit to anything beyond Game 1.”
The Bruins are deep at every position, and having two healthy goalies who have helped bail the team out on more than one occasion this season and have stolen games only makes them more of a threat.
Until Game 1, though, the Bruins will focus on finishing the regular season strong. They can clinch the Atlantic Division on Thursday night with a win against the Canadiens in any fashion and a Toronto Maple Leafs regulation loss to the Florida Panthers.
Puck drop for Bruins-Habs is set for 7 p.m. ET on NESN.
