Bruins’ Jim Montgomery gives cryptic goaltending update for Game 2 vs. Leafs

Jeremy Swayman was excellent in the Boston Bruins’ 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs opener, turning aside 35 shots and helping his club open up a 1-0 lead on the Toronto Maple Leafs in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

But despite the encouraging performance, B’s head coach Jim Montgomery still hasn’t made a decision on who will be between the pipes in Game 2 on Monday night.

“Jim Montgomery says the Bruins coaching staff is still ‘contemplating’ what to do with the goaltending for Game 2,” reported The Athletic hockey insider Chris Johnston on Sunday. “They’ve alternated starts between Swayman and Ullmark since late February.”

Although the rotation system has worked well for Boston over the last two seasons, it’s probably not a hard decision to go back to Swayman in Game 2. He’s had Toronto’s number all year and looked extremely sharp in the opener.

Montgomery did say after the game on Saturday that not going to Swayman back-to-back would be a difficult decision to make.

“It’s going to be hard to go away from Sway. He played a terrific game,” said the bench boss Montgomery, per the Associated Press. “If we decide to go with Ullmark, we’re comfortable with it, and our team’s comfortable with it. It doesn’t affect us in the room, whoever starts next.”

The goaltending in Beantown became a huge point of contention at the end of last year’s first-round, with Ullmark playing despite not being 100 percent healthy, and Swayman probably getting turned to too late.

Most likely, the latter will get another opportunity on Monday night at TD Garden, with full confidence in the former if things don’t go as planned for the Bruins.

Jeremy Swayman, Linus Ullmark the best goaltending duo in NHL