{"id":476840,"date":"2025-10-28T11:54:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=476840"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:54:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:54:38","slug":"boston-bruins-success-on-goaltender-jeremy-swayman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/10\/28\/boston-bruins-success-on-goaltender-jeremy-swayman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Key to the Boston Bruins Success Relies on Goalie Jeremy Swayman"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is just eleven games into the season, and the Boston Bruins<\/a> sit at 4-7-0. It\u2019s already been a rollercoaster of emotions for fans. Starting with the optimism of opening night and a three-game win streak that had people thinking \u201cmaybe<\/em>,\u201d to a frustrating six-game skid that tested even the most loyal supporters.<\/p>\n

Eleven Games In: What We\u2019ve Learned About the Boston Bruins<\/h2>\n

That losing streak, however, came to an end in dramatic fashion with a hard fought and highly entertaining 3\u20132 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.\u00a0 One take away from that win, the success of this Bruins<\/a> team lays squarely on Swayman shoukders<\/p>\n

The Upside and their Skill and Fight<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s some genuine fight in this group, both literally and figuratively. Tanner Jeannot<\/a> and Ross Johnston\u2019s<\/a> spirited scrap on Thursday night was proof that this team won\u2019t back down.<\/p>\n

Offensively, the Bruins have talent. David Pastrnak<\/a> remains one of the NHL\u2019s elite scorers, capable of hitting 40 goals while also creating plays for others. Morgan Geekie<\/a> has picked up right where he left off after last year\u2019s 30-goal campaign, showcasing a quick release and natural scoring touch. Elias Lindholm<\/a> brings stability down the middle, excelling in puck possession and faceoffs.<\/p>\n

On the backend, the Bruins have defencemen who can activate offensively. Charlie McAvoy<\/a>\u00a0continues to be among the league\u2019s most skilled blueliners. Nikita Zadorov<\/a> adds a unique blend of size, toughness, and surprising mobility, while Hampus Lindholm<\/a> and rookie Mason Lohrei<\/a> both contribute with their puck-moving and offensive instincts. This is despite Lindholm’s recent move to the injured reserve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Downside is the Defensive Breakdowns<\/h3>\n

Defensive play has been the team\u2019s biggest issue. Too often, coverage breaks down in front of the net, leading to high quality chances against. Costly turnovers and missed assignments have burned them repeatedly.<\/p>\n

This group didn\u2019t enter the season with sky high expectations, but that doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t hope. Every successful team needs two things, that is consistent effort and a solid structure. The Bruins\u2019 effort has been there most nights, it\u2019s the structure that needs to appear more consistently.<\/p>\n

The Swayman Factor<\/h3>\n

If the Bruins want to stay competitive, they need to ride their number one goaltender. Jeremy Swayman<\/a> gives this team the best chance to win, and Saturday\u2019s win over Colorado was proof. Despite being outshot 33\u201319, the Bruins came out on top largely because of Swayman\u2019s performance. He made several key saves to preserve the lead and deliver a much-needed victory.<\/p>\n

Swayman currently owns a 3.45 goals-against average and an .887 save percentage, these numbers that don\u2019t tell the full story of his impact. He\u2019s coming off a down year, one marred by inconsistency after a contract dispute that kept him out of training camp. Last season\u2019s 3.11 GAA and .892 save percentage were uncharacteristic for a goalie of his calibre. Last night’s game in Ottawa was just a disastrous breakdown defensively in front of him. The Senators scored four power play goals, three of them coming in the third period of play.\u00a0 Swayman\u2019s line from last night looks awful, but if you watched the game, you will see that none of the goals were on him. The sixth goal of the game scored by Nick Cousins<\/a> was a rebound with four Bruin penalty killers standing in front of the net, while Cousins skated btween all of them picked up the rebound and scored.<\/p>\n

If Boston wants to stay in the playoff hunt, they will need to rely heavily on their #1 goalie.\u00a0 He needs to play a large majority of the games in order for this team to be succesful.\u00a0 Last night proved that, with the sloppy team play in from of him, it will take an elite goalie to keep this team relavent into December.\u00a0 He has the talent to be a top 10 goalie in this keague, the Bruins need to put the success of this season on Swayman capable shoulders.\u00a0 They paid him to be a #1 goalie, now play him like a Number 1 goalie.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is just eleven games into the season, and the Boston Bruins sit at 4-7-0. It\u2019s already been a rollercoaster of emotions for fans. Starting with the optimism of opening night and a three-game win streak that had people thinking \u201cmaybe,\u201d to a frustrating six-game skid that tested even the most loyal supporters. Eleven Games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5671,"featured_media":476936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4547,4548],"tags":[4758],"class_list":["post-476840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bruins","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-jeremy-swayman"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5671"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476840"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476937,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476840\/revisions\/476937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}