Swayman Starts Thursday, All Good With Montgomery

If you were thinking there was something deeper going on when Boston Bruins Jeremy Swayman expressed his frustration after being pulled in the second period of his team’s 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday, think again.

Swayman will start a second-straight game on Thursday when the Boston Bruins host the San Jose Sharks at TD Garden. Following practice on Wednesday, both he and head coach Jim Montgomery made it clear to reporters that there is not even a semblance of a rift between them now.

“Completely good,” Swayman said of things between him and his head coach. “It’s a long season. We roll day by day. Yesterday’s in the past, and that’s what our culture is; that’s what our mindset is. And we got two points on the line tomorrow, and that’s all we care about.”

That doesn’t mean Jeremy Swayman won’t be irked if and when Montgomery pulls him from a game again, but that’s just his competitive side and nothing personal.

“Whatever it takes for the team to win, I know that I’m gonna take the positives and roll with it and move forward like I always do,” Swayman explained. “I want to finish every game I start; that’s an edge that I know I play with. The guys all trust me that I’m gonna battle no matter what. That’s gonna be something I’m gonna carry forward for the rest of my career. I gotta look at the film — I did today —and again, make some changes and move forward with the positives.”

As Montgomery stated immediately after the loss on Monday night, pulling Swayman in favor of Linus Ullmark was a reflection of what he thought of the players in front of him and not his goalie, who, along with Ullmark, is the reason the Bruins were still tied for the second most points in the NHL despite a three-game losing streak. On Wednesday, the reigning Jack Adams Award winner reiterated that and that he was simply following his coaching gut.

“I had a good meeting with Swayman) this morning. Sway is a competitor,” Montgomery said. “I always trust my gut behind the bench, and my gut said the team needed a spark, and that was the way to get it. In New York, my gut told me to call a timeout, and my gut told me to pull the goalie with seven and a half minutes left (in Columbus).”