Jim Montgomery Believes Bruins Goaltending Is Masking ‘Poor’ Rush Defense

The Boston Bruins are 12-1-2 this season and head coach Jim Montgomery didn’t hold back when he gave all the credit to his goalie tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.

“The singular reason why we have the record we have is because of our goaltenders,” Montgomery said after Boston’s 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night. “We’re still giving up way too much. Even tonight in the last 30 minutes, we gave up way too much off the rush and that’s an area that we significantly have to improve. They’re hiding or masking how poor we are right now at defending the rush.”

On one particular rush play, Brandon Carlo compared Ullmark to Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy.

Ullmark came out of his net to break up the Sabres as they were rushing up ice into the Bruins zone. Not only did Ullmark succeed with his poke check, but he sent Carlo, Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak up ice on a 3-on-1, which resulted in Carlo’s first goal of the season.

“That was awesome,” Carlo said after the Bruins win, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s fun to see a Patrick Roy style of play but I like how he was definitive in the decision and it took two guys out of the play so it ended up working very well in our favor going the other way. Thankful I could put one in the back of the net.”

The Bruins’ goal has been not to lose two games in a row and so far this season they have been successful. Ullmark understands how difficult it can be to achieve in the NHL and credits the culture in Boston.

“That’s what everybody strives for,” Ullmark said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “You want to be in a winning culture. You want to create a winning culture. You want to carry on that winning culture and Boston has been so good throughout many years of doing that. Now, we’ve got to pick up the torch and keep the flame burning as bright as it has been.”