There are plenty of issues that are ailing the Bruins right now, but the relationship between coach Jim Montgomery and goalie Jeremy Swayman isn’t one of them.
With another game slipping away from them on Monday in Columbus, Montgomery took the aggressive step of yanking Swayman after just two goals against. As he explained after the game, he was simply trying to spark his team that was in a tailspin. The NESN cameras caught the coach and goalie having what looked like a contentious, if brief, conversation about it.
But on Wednesday, Montgomery and Swayman talked it out and all is good between the two former Maine Black Bears.
“I had a good meeting with him this morning,” said Montgomery. “Sway’s a competitor. Our goaltenders are our number one reason why we’re (14-4-3). And the number two reason is distant (from the goalies). I gave him my thoughts. I always trust my gut behind the bench and my gut said the team needed a a spark and that was the way to get it. In New York, my gut told me to call timeout. My gut told me to pull the goalie with seven and a half minutes (in the third period in Columbus). I don’t like living with regret and sometimes I make bad decisions. And I’ve got to own up to those as well and I do that with my conversation with the players if it’s the case. But I’m going to go back with Swayman (Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks).”
Asked if he thought this was one of those bad decisions and he was second-guessing it, Montgomery said with a chuckle, “No. That’s for you guys.”
Swayman was back to his usual cheery self when meeting with reporters in the Warrior Ice Arena dressing room on Wednesday. He understood what Montgomery was trying to do.
“We had a great conversation about it today,”said Swayman. “He’s our head coach and we’re going to trust everything that he’s going to do. I thought we did get the jump a little bit. Whatever it takes for the team to win. I know I’m going to take the positives and roll with it like I always do.”
The first goal Swayman allowed was a bad angle shot that he should have had, arguably the first time that’s happened all year. The second was on a screen shot on a play in which Pavel Zacha made a mistake of going to the bench, while the teams were on the second period long change, after his stick broke.
With Swayman’s body of work this year, one could understand why he might not have been able to understand the quick hook in the heat of the moment.
“I want to finish every game I start,” said Swayman. “That’s an edge that I know I play with and it’s one of MO’s. They all trust in me that I’m going to battle no matter what. That’s something that I’m going to carry forward for the rest of m career, today and tomorrow. That’s something where I’ve got to look at the film — I did today again — make some changes and move forward.”
Swayman did say he was looking for answers when he came out of the game, but he wasn’t being confrontational.
“Of course, I want to be in the game no matter what,” said Swayman. “It wasn’t a jawing back or anything like that. It was just a communication thing. We talked about it and we’re completely good.”
After seeing less than two periods of work on Monday, he was happy to get the next start.
“I’m definitely excited to get another whack at it,” said Swwayman. “It’s a long season and we roll day-by-day. Yesterday’s in the past. That’s what our culture is, that’s what our mindset is. We’ve got two points on the line and that’s all we care about.”….
Montgomery mixed up his top six forwards in practice, putting rookie Matt Poitras between Brad Marchand and Danton Heinen while Zacha centered David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk. The third line (James van Riemsdyk-Charlie Coyle-Trent Frederic) and fourth line (Jakub Lauko-John Beecher-Morgan Geekie) remained the same.
“I left the lines together for a good stretch there and we’re just not seeing good enough results. The Coyle s playing big and heavy and playing to their identity. I didn’t think the other lines had an identity,” said Montgomery.
The Marchand-Zacha-Pastrnak clicked at first but has not been good at either ends of the ice in the three-game slide.
“I think a lot of it is puck management with those three,” said Montgomery….
Montgomery looked at the failure of his checking game as a contributing factor to the current three-game slide they’re on. He’s been OK with the forecheck, but everything from the offensive zone hash marks all the way back to the goal line needs a lot of work. And it’s not so much about being physical, thought there’s that, too, but simply taking away time and space from opponents, said Montgomery.
Montgomery knew that some adversity was coming with the way his team had been playing.
“We’re hoping to grow out of this. It’s called moving forward,” said Montgomery. “In a lot of ways we welcome this kind of adversity. We knew it was going to come. We knew we weren’t a 14-1-3 team. That’s’ just being honest. And we’re also not a team that gives up 17 goals in three games. We’ve got to get back to who we are and we’ve got to continue to grow as a team throughout the year.”
The B’s will take on a Sharks team that is not so much he laughing stock it was to start the season. They’ve scored wins over Vancouver and Washington recently.
“We know there’s a lot of things we’ve got to be better at,” said McAvoy. “One game’s not going to shoot us to the top of the league in all sorts of respective categories, but we’ve got to build it one game at a time.”