Boston Bruins
“I mean, he’s been our best player all year.”
COMMENTARY
The stakes were as high as they’ve ever been this season for the Bruins entering Saturday’s primetime road matchup against the Red Wings.
With Boston and Detroit tied in the standings with 84 points apiece — and the rest of a log-jammed Eastern Conference not showing any signs of loosening up — snatching two points would have been critical for Boston’s ongoing playoff push.
According to MoneyPuck, a regulation win for Boston in Detroit would have boosted the Bruins’ playoff odds by over 10 percent — raising their chances of punching their ticket to the playoffs to 78.8 percent.
A loss in regulation? An 11.3 percent dip, lowering their playoff hopes closer to a coin flip at 57.3 percent.
Given Boston’s precarious playoff positioning, Marco Sturm and his staff turned to their No. 1 netminder on Saturday in hopes of rectifying Boston’s season-long struggles away from the friendly confines of TD Garden.
And, in the biggest game of the season (so far), Jeremy Swayman picked an ideal time to submit his strongest showing of the year.
The 27-year-old netminder stemmed the tide as the Red Wings peppered the net on Saturday, turning aside 42 of 44 shots to help Boston skate off the ice with a critical 4-2 victory in Detroit.
“I mean, it’s the best I’ve seen him play since I’ve been around,” Sturm said postgame. “He was unbelievable and kept us in the game, won us the game.”
The Bruins had several key cogs pull on the rope as part of a momentum-shifting victory in Michigan.
David Pastrnak lit the lamp for the sixth time in his last eight games. Two veterans laboring as of late in Morgan Geekie (three assists) and Elias Lindholm (one goal, one assist) broke through in the offensive zone. Nikita Zadorov’s game-winning tally was his first since Oct. 16.
But, it was Swayman’s play between the pipes that snuffed out any hope of Detroit snatching valuable points from Boston in crunch time.
He stood tall in the third period, negating four Grade-A looks from Detroit on the power play shortly after Lindholm snapped home the equalizer.
The Red Wings pushed again after Zadorov gave Boston the lead, with Swayman corralling a point-blank shot from Detroit forward Emmitt Finnie to keep his club ahead.
At 5-on-5 action, the Bruins were largely outclassed by the Red Wings as far as generating looks — with Detroit producing 12 high-danger scoring chances to Boston’s five (per Natural Stat Trick).
But Swayman stood as the great equalizer, finishing the game a perfect 14-for-14 on high-danger saves in the victory. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Red Wings generated an expected goals rate of 4.17 on Saturday — over two tallies beyond what they actually managed to get past Swayman.
“He was unbelievable to watch,” Pastrnak said. “He was making insane saves. He kept us in the game, the whole game pretty much. So, when you have Sway playing like that, we are very confident playing the tight game and we know we’re going to pull it in.”
Swayman has risen to the occasion during his stretch run to keep Boston’s playoff hopes alive. Since the Bruins returned from the Olympic break, Swayman is 6-2-1 with a .930 save percentage.
His baseline numbers may not jump off the page. But, Swayman’s .908 save percentage doesn’t tell the full story of just how often Boston’s top goalie has been under siege this season — and still sporting strong numbers.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Bruins rank last in the entire NHL in expected goals against per 60 minutes at 3.59.
They rank 30th in the NHL in shots allowed per 60 minutes (29.53) and 30th in high-danger scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes (13.72).
The 2025-26 Bruins have punched well above their weight this season. Still, they’re still a team with plenty of room to grow, especially in the D-zone.
As seemingly pedestrian as Swayman’s save percentage might seem to be, his play — relative to the salvo of high-danger shots that sail his way most nights — should warrant some consideration for the Vezina Trophy.
As noted by MoneyPuck, Swayman is now second in the NHL in goals saved above expected at 27.1, with only Washington’s Logan Thompson (27.9) ranked above him.
In other words, Swayman’s ability to regularly turn aside Grade-A scoring chances has stopped over 27 tallies during his 47 games — 27 tallies that would have otherwise scuttled Boston’s hopes of fielding a competitive, playoff-worthy club this season.
Other Vezina candidates like Andrei Vasilevskiy might boast stronger baseline numbers (.915 save percentage) on better teams.
Goalies seemingly keeping their clubs in the playoff race, like the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin, Swayman, and Thompson, also deserve plenty of consideration.
Among that latter trio, a legitimate Vezina Trophy push might come down to which No. 1 netminder can successfully carry their club across the finish line to back into the postseason.
So far, Swayman is doing his part to check off all those boxes for Boston.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Zadorov said of Swayman’s play. “I mean, he’s been our best player all year.”
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