Jeremy Swayman is The Peterson School’s Hardest Working Player of the Week
This has not been the season that Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins envisioned for themselves.
But the good news for Swayman and the Bruins is that it appears that the club’s franchise netminder has turned a corner towards back towards something closer to his expectations, with a strong week that has earned him the nod as The Hardest Working Player of the Week sponsored by The Peterson School.
In action for three games this past week, the first thing that pops off the page with Swayman was the rubber faced, as Swayman was tagged with a league-high 111 shots against over that three-start week. It was good enough for Swayman to have an almost 20-shot lead over the second-busiest goalie, too, with Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen hit with 92 shots over that same span.
But there’s no denying that Swayman was at his absolute best — not just this past week, but arguably the entire season — in last Saturday’s head-to-head with the Panthers down in Sunrise.
It wasn’t just the fact that Swayman made a season-high 40 saves in the overtime victory. Or that he rebounded from a tough-luck game-tying goal with under two seconds left with a strong overtime showing. It was the fact that Swayman allowed the Bruins to hang tough in a game where they were downright dominated from a puck possession standpoint, with the Panthers attempting over 100 shots on the B’s goaltender.
It’s as insane as it sounds, too.
In fact, going back to 2007, it was the first time that the Bruins allowed 100-plus shots in a regular season game. Expand it beyond the regular season and it was just the third time the Bruins allowed at least 100 shot attempts in a single game, joining a club that features a double-overtime game against the Penguins and triple-overtime game against the Blackhawks during the B’s 2013 postseason run.
But, again, Swayman hung in there and helped steal the game for the Bruins.
And expanding it beyond just Saturday, only three goalies made at least three appearances last week and posted a better save percentage than Swayman’s .919 over his three starts.
Challenged for scoring, the Bruins will need Swayman to continue surging to keep themselves in a playoff spot down the stretch.
The Hardest Working Player of the Week is sponsored by The Peterson School. The Peterson School is now enrolling for their spring semester in Woburn, Westwood, Worcester, and Haverhill. To learn more, visit petersonschool.com.
