What makes the Bruins approach unique is doing it on in-zone plays, when others traditionally emphasize being set because of fears a goalie in motion won't be able to react as well. Goalies have long tried to start above the crease and time their retreat to match the pace of the attack. The idea of drifting backward in the crease isn't new when it comes to playing against rush chances. "But as soon as you think you've mastered it, you get humbled pretty quick, so it's definitely a feel thing and something we work on every day." "I was lucky implementing it in my game early on," Swayman said.
His four shutouts this season are tied for fourth in the NHL, and he ranks fourth in save percentage (.921) and third in GAA (2.19) among goalies who have played at least 30 games. Swayman arrived in Boston as a rookie in 2020-21, one season before Ullmark, but played with backwards momentum at the University of Maine because Alfie Michaud, the Black Bears goaltending coach, advocated for it. "He loves it that I was so against it and now I'm a big believer of it," Ullmark said. "I listened to that and a lot of the things me and Bob talked about last year just made sense and I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to try to incorporate this,'" Ullmark said.ĭuring the explanation, Ullmark pointed to his playing partner, Jeremy Swayman. The concepts behind that feeling were reinforced during the offseason while listening to an interview on the "InGoal Radio" podcast with goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who played 15 seasons for the New York Rangers before retiring Aug. I was stubborn, like, 'My way works, my way got me to this point, so why would I start changing these things in my game.'"
"And then I had one game, just one game, when everything clicked last season, where I got a little taste of it, and I told him 'This is nice' and then I started easing up a little bit on it. "I was frustrated because wanted me to move and I wanted to be stopped and set because I felt that's where I make my reaction saves," Ullmark said. Ullmark strives to get square to a shooter, but instead of being set when the shot is loaded up, he now drifts slightly backward, a movement Bruins goaltending coach Bob Essensa calls "recoil."Īfter some initial hesitation when he arrived as a free agent last season, Ullmark credits the change for playing a big role in helping him lead the NHL with 36 wins (36-5-1), a 1.92 goals-against average and. In doing so, he had to abandon half of what many in the goaltending world still see as a foundational part of the position and how best to play it: Being set and square before the shot.
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