Don Sweeney acknowledged last week that the Bruins had a plan in place with their goalie rotation.
But the general manager did add a qualifier.
“They know what their strengths are for our hockey club, and how much we rely on them,” Sweeney said of the 1-2 punch in net with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark. “Performance and results will dictate some of this.”
At this juncture on the NHL calendar, wins and losses trump all other statistics. As such, the Bruins aren’t harping on the silver linings from Monday’s Game 2 loss to the Maple Leafs.
After relinquishing three goals on 33 shots, Ullmark likely will be back on the bench Wednesday for Game 3 of this first-round series at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. A start for Swayman (35 saves on 36 shots in Game 1) would stand as the 28th straight game in which the Bruins alternated goalies.
Regardless of what happens in Toronto, the goalie-rotation discourse is destined to carry on for however long the playoff campaign lasts.
But Monday’s loss stood as a sobering lesson: The Bruins aren’t going to stay afloat against the high-powered Maple Leafs if they keep treading water in their own end.
“We’re not playing fast enough,” coach Jim Montgomery said after his team’s first loss to Toronto all season. “We’re slow in transition, which is not allowing us to possess pucks and it’s not allowing us to get in on the forecheck more.”
The Bruins’ inability to generate quality scoring chances against Toronto’s malleable defense compounded their woes. Granted, it’s an arduous undertaking for any offense to gain traction when its puck carriers are sputtering in the defensive zone and neutral ice.
As in their shocking first-round exit last spring at the hands of the Panthers, the Bruins’ breakout labored against the Maple Leafs’ forecheck — with hurried passes and ill-advised feeds often leading to Grade A shots on Ullmark.
For all of the warts on Toronto’s roster — especially on defense — the Leafs have enough firepower to shred even the sturdiest netminder.
Both Ullmark (who snuffed out quality scoring chances by Calle Jarnkrok and Nicholas Robertson in Game 2) and Swayman have been up to the task against Toronto.
The same can’t be said for the skaters in front of the netminders, especially Monday.
”I didn’t think our urgency was where it needed to be to prevail tonight,” Montgomery said.
Even if Montgomery had opted to play Swayman, the result likely would have been the same in Game 2 — a contest in which Toronto held a whopping 37-17 edge in scoring chances and 14-7 advantage in high-danger looks.
Strong goaltending has buoyed the Bruins all season, at times masking a D-zone structure prone to coughing up quality chances around the slot.
The Bruins ranked fifth in the NHL in goals against per game (2.70), but also allowed 11.42 five-on-five high-danger scoring chances per contest (per Natural Stat Trick). That ranked 24th — and last among the 16 teams that made the playoffs.
Pucks flung off into no man’s land, missed clears, and careless play through the neutral zone can make life miserable for a defense. Against a team as potent as the Maple Leafs, it can put you on the mat in short order.
The Bruins still hold a sizable advantage in net in this series, whether it’s Swayman or Ullmark. An emphasis on fighting toward inside ice should aid their efforts in landing more punches against Toronto goalie Ilya Samsonov.
But if they don’t tighten up their transition game and cut down on time spent in their own zone, a goalie rotation will again hold little sway over the efforts to punch a ticket to the second round.
