When the Boston Bruins signed Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year, big-money contract, they envisioned the exact goaltender that they received in a dominating, clutch performance during a huge weekend road tilt against the Red Wings in Detroit.
With massive points for a playoff push on the line, Swayman was dynamite, making 41 saves in a 4-2 win for the Black and Gold over the Red Wings, where the Bruins had a very clear advantage in net as Detroit’s John Gibson faltered badly in the third period. Swayman has been solid for the balance of the regular season, but he’s been excellent since the Olympic break, coming off a gold medal experience and giving his B’s teammates all kinds of confidence when he’s between the pipes right now.
“He’s been unbelievable. He’s been our best player all year, you know? We are really confident when we play with him,” said Nikita Zadorov, who scored the game-winning goal for the Bruins in the third period on his second goal of the season. “We have two great goalies, [Joonas Korpisalo] has been awesome and a big part of our success for sure.”
Swayman stood on his head denying quality scoring chances against the Red Wings as Detroit outshot Boston by a 43-26 margin with Swayman making an unreal 21 saves in the final 20 minutes as the Wings furiously tried to tie things up. It’s all been part of an outstanding stretch for the B’s No. 1 netminder since returning from Milan Cortina with a gold medal in his possession, and perhaps a little something to prove after playing netminding understudy to Connor Hellebuyck on Team USA.
“He kept us in the game the whole game,” said Pastrnak. “When we have Swayman playing like that, we are very confident in our game.”
Swayman is 6-1-1 in the month of March with a 1.85 goals against average and a .934 save percentage and turned away 14 high danger chances against a skilled, speedy Red Wings club that had over four expected goals in Saturday’s contest, according to the fancy stats brigade.
In the last 10 games the defense hasn’t really improved tremendously for the Bruins, but Swayman has been at the pretty much the same level as when he shined in the Stanley Cup playoffs a couple of seasons ago. It’s exactly what the Bruins hoped for when they inked him to a contract paying him $8.125 million per season, and what they’ve come to expect in the big moments.
And everybody is most definitely noticing.
“Swayman, that’s the best that I’ve seen him play since I’ve been around,” said an effusive Marco Sturm. “He was unbelievable. He kept us in the game and won us the game…so pretty happy.”
The real temptation now is how much to keep
