Bruins Notes: Jeremy Swayman Addresses Near-Fight Vs. Kings
The Boston Bruins didn’t have much to offer offensively, but that didn’t stop goalie Jeremy Swayman from trying to light some late-season fireworks against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night.
Swayman challenged Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper after dropping his gloves at 5:47 in the second period — in defense of Bruins teammate Marat Khusnutdinov. Kuemper gladly obliged to Swayman’s signal for on-ice violence, but officials got in the way of a Boston-LA goaltender squabble on the West Coast before the Bruins suffered an ugly 7-2 loss at Crypto.com Arena, their sixth straight.
“He touched one of my guys,” Swayman told reporters, as seen on NESN. “It’s something that I’m not gonna accept and crews immediately stepped up and it got broken up. … I think it just comes down to sticking up for my teammates. I don’t care who it is. It’s a guy in Black and Gold, you’re not gonna touch him without getting contested and I care about every one of these guys like a brother. That’s just the way I felt and I felt like it was my turn to step up.”
The courage Swayman displayed — while the Bruins trailed the Kings, 3-2 — wasn’t enough to spark the rest of the crew. Boston’s ongoing struggles with getting shots off continued, and this time the Bruins got out-shot, 23-13, by Los Angeles. Head coach Joe Sacco’s offense was noticeably deflated and failed to compete with the Kings long enough to prevent a hard-to-stomach blowout.
However, Sacco highlighted a few positives from the latest defeat, all while admitting that the process has been “frustrating” to endure first-hand.
“The start, the competitiveness in the first and second period. Those are things that, as a group when you’re going through a tough time, you wanna see,” Sacco said, per NESN. “There’s obviously been an opportunity here for some young players that are coming into the league right now for the first time or getting more of an opportunity than they had before, and some other guys as well. It’s frustrating right now for us as a group because we’re not getting any results. But you just have to stick with it. This is not an easy league and teams are not forgiving.”
Here are more notes from Sunday night’s Bruins-Kings game:
— Boston has lost its sixth straight game, marking the team’s second six-game losing streak of the season. The team has been out-scored, 30-11, throughout the streak.
“There’s not much to say after this one, for sure,” Nikita Zadorov said, per NESN. “We’re just getting pushed around way too easy. It’s a hard league to win. Battles on the pucks, physical in the corners. I think we’re getting stuck in their zone too long. The other team is gaining momentum and it’s on us.”
— Swayman allowed all seven Los Angeles goals (and tallied 16 saves), marking the fourth consecutive start in which he’s surrendered four-plus goals. The 26-year-old has given up 20 goals in total across the stretch.
— The Bruins recorded just a single shot on goal in the third period. The Kings, meanwhile, countered with three unanswered goals to close out the contest.
— Boston, now 30-33-9 on the season, has 10 games remaining in its regular season. Still, Sacco believes that no reason to take a dive in the campaign’s final stretch, regardless of the team’s far-reaching standing from playoff contention.
“I’ve been on both sides of the coin and obviously when you’re going through a stretch like this, there’s a couple of things that you have to keep in mind,” Sacco mentioned, per NESN. “No. 1, obviously is the pride. The pride for yourself, the pride for your teammates and the organization. That’s something certainly that is first and foremost. And then obviously, it’s a privilege to play in this league and you can’t take it for granted any night. That’s something that every guy has to remember that.”
— The Bruins will continue their road trip on Wednesday night against the Anaheim Ducks. Puck drop from Honda Center is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.