Did Bruins make wrong call starting Swayman again vs. Canucks?

Boston Bruins

“It was a big game for us, and we thought he would give us the best chance.”

A few days after harping on some of the silver linings drawn out of a regulation loss to the Oilers, Marco Sturm wasn’t following the same script after Boston secured at least a point in the standings against the Canucks. 

“Those little individual mistakes, I would say, just cost us another point here,” Sturm said on NESN. “First period was really good, but again, some guys — [it was] probably one of their worst games of the year. And yeah, unfortunately, just cost us a point.”

Earning at least a point won’t assuage the frustrations felt by the Bruins after a 5-4 shootout loss to the Canucks — a game where Boston largely controlled play and held a 42-22 edge in shots on goal and coughed up a one-goal lead in the third period of play.

Boston entered Saturday with a record of 20-2-0 when leading after 40 minutes. But several critical lapses and an inability to put away a pesky Canucks team proved costly in Boston’s second-straight loss.

“Seems like it was a weird game,” Mark Kastelic said. “It felt like just like any mistake we made, they capitalized on and that’s the unfortunate part.  Just things we need to clean up in the third is just trying to limit the mental breakdown. … It’s definitely disappointing. This felt like a game we should have definitely had, but nothing we can do about it anymore.”

There were several squandered chances for Boston to turn Saturday’s matchup into a “get-right” win after Thursday’s setback against Edmonton. 

Two failed power-play bids that could have manufactured some breathing room for Boston went for nought, with Linus Karlsson tying the game, 3-3, just 38 seconds after the Bruins’ final chance on the man advantage expired in the third period.

There was Boston’s inability to pepper a puck past Kevin Lankinen despite generating six shots during the five-minute overtime, while Sturm’s choice of participants in a seven-round shootout also loomed large.

But even with Jeremy Swayman turning aside the first six attempts that came his way in Saturday’s shootout, the decision to roll with Swayman against the Canucks was a bit of a curious choice. 

While Swayman holds court as Boston’s No. 1 netminder, Saturday marked the fourth-straight game that the 27-year-old goalie earned the nod between the pipes. 

And in a game where the Bruins largely dictated play against the Canucks, a timely save or two from Swayman in regulation would have likely been the difference — with Swayman knocked for a .818 save percentage (18 saves on 22 shots) en route to his second loss in a row. 

Swayman hasn’t been regularly tasked with logging four-straight starts during his tenure with the Bruins, especially during the years where he split the net with Linus Ullmark. 

He’s largely fared better this year when given a bit of a longer leash by Sturm — recording a career-best 44 saves earlier this season when handed a third-consecutive start against the Islanders on Nov. 26. 

But Saturday had Swayman operating in more uncharted waters in regards to his workload, with Sturm turning to him once again instead of backup Joonas Korpisalo.

“It was a big game for us, and we thought he would give us the best chance,” Sturm said postgame of rolling with Swayman once again.

The Bruins’ compressed scheduled ahead of the holiday break isn’t doing Boston any favors in terms of managing reps, while it was all but a given that Swayman and Korpisalo were going to split starts this weekend ahead of a back-to-back slate against the Canucks and Senators. 

But the call to stick with Swayman instead of prescribing him a night off before a key divisional bout against Ottawa on Sunday does raise some eyebrows. 

Granted, Swayman hasn’t been sharp in his career against the Senators — posting a 4-4-3 record and an .888 save percentage against 11 outings against them.

Holding out Swayman on Sunday also gives Boston the opportunity to have a rested Swayman ready for an anticipated home matchup against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 23. 

Still, the Bruins and Sturm might need to know when to cut their losses as far as pushing Swayman’s reps beyond his regular allotment over the grind of an 82-game season — especially amid this frantic pace during an Olympics year.

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.