BRIGHTON, Mass. — Despite battling an undisclosed ailment, Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark felt he could have played in Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.
But Ullmark never got that opportunity even though he started the first six games of the first-round series, with the Bruins turning goaltending duties over to Jeremy Swayman for what would be their final game of the season.
Ullmark didn’t second-guess the decision — at least not publicly — by the Bruins to make the switch and put his effort for that contest into being a support system for Swayman.
“I fully respected the decision to put Sway into play that one,” Ullmark said Tuesday during exit interview day at Warrior Ice Arena. “If the team feels like that’s the way they want to go, I fully support it. That’s thing that we talk about in this organization and this team as well that we win together and we lose together. Doesn’t matter who’s out there. Everybody tried to own up to their role. That point I was put on the bench and the only thing that I did throughout that day was to fully support Sway in the best of my capabilities.”
Swayman spoke highly of Ullmark in the immediate aftermath of the 4-3 overtime defeat and said that Ullmark had a simple message for him as well before he took the ice.
The two netminders have cultivated a strong bond during their time together with Boston, which allowed them to lean on each other since the devastating Game 7 loss. Swayman, who is a restricted free agent this offseason, certainly wants to be back alongside Ullmark next year with the hopes of the two anchoring the Bruins to more postseason wins.
“We’ve talked plenty, and that’s just the uniqueness of our relationship, is that we’re able to do that,” Swayman said. “Obviously, we’re both upset with what’s happened and we want to make sure that moving forward, we do whatever we can to make sure it won’t happen again. We took so many positives this year, made so many incredible things together. Come playoff time next year, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we make it to that second round, third round, fourth round.”
