Haggs: Boston Bruins Goalie Picture Pretty Clear At This Point | BHN+

BOSTON – While the Boston Bruins insist there’s no clear-cut No. 1 goaltender right now, the choice appears abundantly clear as to which goalie should get the bulk of playing time to start the regular season.

Jeremy Swayman has looked strong and ready to build on last season’s eye-opening debut when he took the Boston Bruins goaltending situation by storm, and free agent signee Linus Ullmark has stumbled a bit out of the gate in the preseason. Obviously, it’s training camp and a long way to go with a former Buffalo Sabres goaltender that the Bruins signed to a four-year, $20 million contract, and it’s presumed that the 28-year-old will get back on track.

But four goals allowed on 19 shots in Saturday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Rangers, a big gaffe in OT where his turnover to Alexis Lafreniere led to an easy game-wining goal for the Blueshirts and an .813 save percentage during the preseason aren’t encouraging for Ullmark.

The end note for Ullmark was a rough one.

The Linus Ullmark era is off to a rocky start in Boston pic.twitter.com/rwonj0VG72

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) October 3, 2021

The former Sabres netminder admitted following Saturday’s loss to the Rangers that he’s got some work to do, and that much is clear. The good news is that he’s got a few more weeks to work out the kinks prior to the start to the regular season.

“It’s the preseason…mistakes happen. You’ve just got to move on from it and learn from it,” said Ullmark, who was then asked about his overall game during the preseason. “It’s alright, there are some things that need to be dealt with obviously. The first few games with a new team there’s going to be some communication stuff out there, but you just need to get back to it and go through it with [goalie coach] Bob [Essensa] tomorrow and see what we can change, or just if it was one of those days.”