Confidence, Physicality Coming At Right Time For Bruins Before Postseason

Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman is not above getting into the fray when he sees his teammates engaged in scrums, whether it’s near his crease or down the ice.

“I see all my guys go in … it’s a team effort, we all go in,” Swayman said after he challenged Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll during Boston’s 4-1 victory over Toronto on March 7.

Linus Ullmark, on the other hand, doesn’t feel the need to engage when he’s backstopping Boston.

“I try to stay out of it. I’m not like Sway,” Ullmark told reporters following Boston’s hard-fought win against the Florida Panthers on Saturday, per the team. “We get fired up for different reasons. He loves that stuff, I suppose. But for me, I just try to stay out of it.

“If something goes down and there’s a bad thing going on, yeah, I’m gonna step up as well. But most of the time, there’s no need for it. (…) There’s no goalies to do anything. For us, it’s more about focusing on stopping the puck. That’s what we’re paid to do. We’re not paid to go out there and hit people or punch people.”

Ullmark may not want to get into the scrums, but as the regular season winds down, the Bruins are finding their physical game as their opponents are playing with desperation. Boston head coach Jim Montgomery has noticed the shift in play over the last 10 games, especially in the chippy overtime win over Florida.

“I think everybody is really comfortable with who we are, how we need to execute, the effort required and the physicality required,” Montgomery said. “I think that’s where our group has confidence. It’s about finding how to close out games, how to take games and how to push games out of reach.”

So what came first for Boston … physicality or confidence?

“The physicality to me, for our group, I’ve seen it come with the confidence,” Montgomery said.

Along with playing a physical game, the Bruins also broke through on the power play when Charlie Coyle tallied his 24th goal of the season. Before the contest, Montgomery told reporters he wasn’t concerned that Boston hadn’t capitalized recently on the man advantage.

“I’m not concerned about our power play,” he said. “We got David Pastrnak. We have Charlie McAvoy, we have, you know a guy who has 400 goals as a Bruin (Brad Marchand). I’m not too concerned.

“I know (the power play) hasn’t looked great lately, but we’re working on things, and when you’re working on things, sometimes it’s not natural. But, we think because we’re working on it now, it’ll be natural come playoff time.”

The Bruins have four games left in the regular season to fine-tune the power play and other areas of their game before they begin their quest for the Stanley Cup.