Bruins coach Jim Montgomery would not say who would start in net for Sunday’s Game 7 after the morning skate Warrior Ice Arena, nor would he say what lineup changes he was going to employ.
But there were clues.
Jeremy Swayman was the first goalie off the ice, indicating that he’d get his first start of this post-season in the do-or-die game while both Nick Foligno and Connor Clifton were out on the ice late after all the regulars were gone, giving the indication that they’d be out and Trent Frederic and Matt Grzelcyk would be back in.
Whatever decision Montgomery had to make at this precarious stage of the Bruins’ season, it was going to be a difficult one.
“If you make a change at any position, it’s really hard, because we have a group that’s given everything to the team all year,” said Montgomery after the very brief morning skate. “And everyone wants to play in a Game 7. When you’re a kid growing up and you love hockey, whether you’re playing knee hockey with your brother or your best friend, or you’re playing knee hockey with your Pee Wee team, staying in a tournament and playing in the hallways of a hotel, it’s always Game 7. It’s never the first game. I told the team, when I played, I had a neighbor who wasn’t very good, but I let him win three games so we could get to a Game 7. That’s what you love about it. In your career as a player, if you play 10 years, you might get two Game 7s. How thrilling is that, to be able to live your childhood dreams?”
If it’s Swayman, it’s quite a spot to put the second-year netminder in. He hadn’t started a game since the regular season finale in Montreal on April 13. He did see mop-up action in the final 3:11 of the B’s Game 4 win in Sunrise with a three-goal lead after Linus Ullmark was pulled after he got into a tiff with Matthew Tkachuk.
But it didn’t seem like the Bruin decision-makers – Montgomery, goalie coach Bob Essensa and no doubt the brass – had much of a choice. Ullmark played well in Game 1 and in Games 3 and 4 down in Florida, but he had given up 10 goals in his last two games of the series and nine in the last two games at the Garden
The scratching of Foligno would be a tough one and reminiscent of Bruce Cassidy’s scratching of David Backes in Games 6 and 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues in 2019. That worked out in Game 6, not so much in Game 7.
Frederic played in the first four games when the B’s built a 3-1 series lead, but was a surprise Game 5 scratch in favor of rookie Jakub Lauko, who took two penalties, including a costly third period one. When David Krejci returned to the lineup for Game 6 in Florida, that bumped both Lauko and Frederic out of the lineup.
Clifton, meanwhile, had a disastrous minus-3 Game 6 after he had sat out the previous three games….
Hovering in the air at Warrior on Sunday morning was the very real possibility that Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci could be playing their last games in the Bruin sweater. Both are 37, on cheap one-year deals and both have contemplated retirement.
“You can look every where for motivation in this type of situation, but that’s a big one,” said Taylor Hall. “I think just overall, just not letting this be our last game as a group. This is a special group, not only Krech and Bergy, but we’ve had so much fun together as a team this year and we’ve overcome adversity at times. This is obviously the biggest thing we’ve faced. If we get through this, sky’s the limit.”
The B’s were trying to balance the emotional aspects that cannot be denied with the practical details that could keep everyone’s season going.
“That’s a future event and we just like to stay in the moment,” said Montgomery. “And we believe if we stay in the moment, the future events – and you’re talking about Bergeron, you’re talking about Krejci, you’re talking about this group – never does a team that plays one year does everyone come back. So whether Krejci or Bergeron come back next year, there’s going to be other guys missing. Those events, we don’t control those things. What we do control is right now.”
Charlie Coyle echoed those sentiments.
“(If) we focus on the game tonight, we focus on our process, what we do well and there’ll be plenty more of them down the road,” said Coyle. “But also, in that sense, it makes you want to play harder and win that much more. But winning’s the end result and we want to do the things, the process that lead up to that. We focus on that stuff and most times it pays off.”…
The Bruins have done a lot of uncharacteristic things in this series, but the failure of the penalty kill has been a big one, especially in Games 5 and 6 when the Panthers cashed in on three of six chances. The B’s have scored a pair of shorthanded goals but they haven’t made them the dagger-to-the-heart strikes that shorties often are.
“I think you’ve got to give credit to the other team,” said Montgomery. “They’ve made some adjustments, they’ve moved the puck well, they’ve attacked the net well and they’ve gotten a lot of zone time. I think it’s a combination of things, but Florida’s doing a good job. It comes down to that. There’s couple of things we need to adjust to. And I know we will.”