Bruins remain mum on goaltender for Game 2 against Leafs
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The Boston Bruins continued their trend of revealing little about their starting goaltender for Monday's Game 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Do you guys play Wordle? … The goalie tonight has two vowels in his first and last name," head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters Monday.
The team did not reveal their Game 1 starter ahead of time but Jeremy Swayman stopped 35 of the 36 shots he faced as the Bruins won 5-1 and jumped out to a 1-0 series lead.
"It's going to be hard to go away from [Swayman]. He played a terrific game. You win 5-1. But like we said, if we decided to go with [Linus Ullmark], we're comfortable with it. And our team's comfortable with it, you know? I don't think it's... it doesn't affect us in the room whoever starts next game," Montgomery said over the weekend.
Swayman and Ullmark traded starts throughout the regular season, with neither starting more than one straight game since the start of March. There's little to separate the two, with Swayman finishing the year with a 25-10-8 record, a .916 save percentage and a 2.53 goals-against average. Ullmark's record for 2023-24 stood at 22-10-7 record with a .915 save percentage and a 2.58 GAA.
Leafs' head coach Sheldon Keefe also played coy about their situation in net, saying he had no update on Toronto's goaltending.
Ilya Samsonov started the opener and made 19 of 23 saves. He was doing his usual starting routine at Monday's skate ahead of Game 2.
Nylander remains a question mark
Star forward William Nylander skated with his teammates on Monday for the second straight day, but did not participate in line rushes. He then stayed out with the other Toronto projected scratches for extra work after the session.
The 27-year-old Swede missed Game 1 Saturday night with an undisclosed injury. Keefe also said little about Nylander's status and offered no indication on his status for Monday.
Nylander has 17 goals and 40 points in 50 career playoff games, including 14 games against the Bruins.