TORONTO — By all rights, Jeremy Swayman should be fuming or frustrated.
At the very least, the best goaltender of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs should be something less than conversational after standing in the Boston Bruins‘ crease for the past three closeout games his team has failed to, er, close out.
Instead, the unflappable Swayman is laughing — knowingly, vengefully — inside Thursday’s losing visitors’ room in Toronto.
Swayman has been asked off-camera if he is drawing extra motivation to stomp out the Toronto Maple Leafs because the organization acted like it was going to draft him, then picked another goalie instead.
“Sure,” Swayman replies, post-cackle but still grinning. “I could definitely say yes to that.”
His smile is a little devilish and a lot confident.
He knows he’s speaking with a reporter who mostly covers the enemy. Swayman also knows that, as steady as he’s been all series, the fellow 25-year-old at the other end, Joseph Woll, has been one save better in Games 5 and 6.
Yet he relishes the head-to-head battle as much as the franchise-versus-franchise one.
“That’s the beauty of playoffs, and it’s been a blast having a quality opponent every night,” Swayman says of Woll. “And I don’t necessarily just look at one player as an opponent. It’s a team that we’re playing against. It’s a franchise.”
Swayman’s emphasis on that word brings us back to 2017, when the University of Maine’s stud No. 1 talked “a ton” with the Maple Leafs’ scouts and front office — more than any other NHL franchise — in advance of the draft and was convinced when Toronto’s fourth-round pick came up, it could be his turn.
Instead, the Leafs selected a different 18-year-old goalie, Ian Scott of the Prince Albert Raiders, at 110th overall. Swayman, watching the draft online from home in Anchorage, Alaska, looked at dad in disbelief.
The Bruins nabbed Swayman at 111th, the very next pick, kickstarting the C-rated prospect’s dream and adding to the cringe-inducing history that the Maple Leafs have with goalie prospects and the Bruins.
Scott’s pro career would be derailed with injuries; he’d go on to play four AHL games and five ECHL contests in Toronto’s system.
Swayman is an All-Star, a Jennings winner, and he leads all goalies (three starts minimum) this post-season with a sparkling .947 best save percentage and 1.60 goals-against average.
As a pending RFA, Swayman is the reason the cap-tight Bruins are likely to move on from his hug buddy and reigning Vezina winner, Linus Ullmark, this summer.
“He likes to prove people wrong,” says Morgan Geekie, one of Swayman’s closer friends on the team. “We have two great goalies in here, and each one wants to play their best for one another, and you see the friendship they have, so I think they push each other. That’s one thing that you see just brings up the intensity for sure.”
Despite Swayman’s warm and grateful demeanour, the dude is an on-ice killer.
Things between the Leafs and Bruins skaters got nasty in Woll’s last regular-season appearance at TD Garden, on March 7. Swayman skated to centre ice, daring his counterpart to drop the gloves. (Woll, as peaceful a sort as you’ll meet, declined the invitation.)
And when Hockey Night in Canada‘s Kyle Bukauskas asked Swayman how he felt about getting this series’ Game 1 starting nod (over Ullmark), he said: “It’s about time.”
Yep. Swayman is one of a kind, both on this team and among the eccentric cross-section of folk who choose to throw themselves in front of 90-m.p.h. frozen-rubber missiles for a living.
“He’s a little different. He’s a lot more outgoing and a lot more relaxed,” says Geekie, comparing Swayman to other goalies he’s protected.
“We’ve got to know each other pretty well in just a short period of time. But everyone loves him, and everyone sees the intensity he plays with. And that fire. So, we know why he has success. It’s awesome to see. But as good a player as he is, he’s a great guy. We love playing in front of him.”
Vice versa.
“It’s my teammates,” Swayman says, mere minutes after those same teammates let a 3-1 series lead over Toronto dissolve into Saturday’s 3-3 panic party.
“I’m so lucky to have a team that feeds off each other, in and out of the locker room. We all know that we have a job to do, to uphold. And that’s just all I want to do. That gives me so much confidence, as an individual and as a goalie. Because I know when I do my job, my teammates in front of me will do their job to the best of their abilities. And when we do that, we’re a pretty hard team to play against. And that’s what gets me up every morning: being excited about working hard and letting every one of us do a job and see great things happen.”
That Swayman seems immune to the awful thing that could happen — lose Game 7, and Boston becomes the first NHL, NBA or MLB team to lose back-to-back series with a 3-1 lead — makes him a no-doubter to lead the group onto the ice Saturday.
“Ultra-competitive. If anyone’s as close to Marchy [Brad Marchand] on our team as far as competitive fire, it’s him,” coach Jim Montgomery says.
“We need everybody more like Jeremy Swayman. He’s just owned the moment.”
Swayman doesn’t want the moment to be over. And, contrary to believers in “the rotation,” he doesn’t want a break from the hot pressure or the hard work or the Toronto fans razzing him mid-loss: Swaaaaaay-Maaaaannnn!
“Great crowd,” Swayman smiled inside Scotiabank Arena. “Really exciting to be a part of a crowd like that. However, all I care about is the puck. Nothing else.
“Playoff intensity — it’s self-explanatory. It’s the best time of year for a reason. Guys aren’t saving anything in the tank. That’s what makes it so fast and fun to be a part of.
“Me personally, I don’t want rest. I just want to keep playing. No matter when I get the call, whether it’s back-to-back or every other game, I want to make sure my body’s ready to perform at my best.”
We’re not sure which is crazier: That the high-flying, mistake-prone Maple Leafs, led by Woll, have buckled down for two 2-1 decisions to bring us to this point? Or that the most consistent goalie of Round 1 — Swayman posted a .923 save percentage in his worst start, a .972 in his best — is now staring at a second swift elimination?
“The greatest part about it is that as a collective group, it’s our job to play better than theirs,” Swayman said. “And that’s the motivation that gets us up, and that’s what is going to make it feel so special when we do beat these guys next game.”
Next game is, of course, Game 7.
And, yes, Swayman declared when, not if he beats the Leafs.
Which is as close as you’ll get to a star player’s playoff guarantee in an era that fears bulletin-board material, a generation so accessible and vulnerable to social-media blowback.
“The best way I could describe it is just replacing that word nervous with excited and absolutely thriving in that position. And really celebrating the fact that we’re here. Gonna enjoy every second of it,” Swayman says.
“The motivation is in this locker room. It’s the logo we wear, the city we represent, the players that have worn it before us — that’s enough motivation to make us do anything.”
That and a little seasoning of a seven-year-old, draft-table snub.
The great ones will tell you: Ain’t nothing wrong with taking that personally.
