After a long road trip, the Bruins are making a change in goal.
Marco Sturm said after Thursday morning’s skate at TD Garden, according to Adam Pellerin of NESN, that Michael DiPietro will start against the Nashville Predators. Given how much Jeremy Swayman worked on the trip, it hardly qualifies as a shock.
Swayman played in three of the four games on Boston’s road swing, which ended Tuesday night in Dallas with a 3-2 overtime loss. The Bruins had been chasing a four-game sweep after taking all three games in California, but they couldn’t protect a 2-1 lead entering the third period. Swayman still gave them a chance, helping Boston come away with one point and return home with seven out of eight.
Now DiPietro gets the crease for just the third time this season. He opened with a loss to the Minnesota Wild, then earned his first career NHL win last Friday against the Anaheim Ducks. In that game, he gave up both Anaheim goals in the final minute of the first period before shutting things down the rest of the way and finishing with 26 saves in Boston’s 4-2 win.
The Bruins’ move isn’t hard to trace. When they traded Joonas Korpisalo in July, DiPietro stepped into the role of Swayman’s backup, and he arrived there after building his case over the last couple of seasons with the Providence Bruins in the AHL. But this one comes with a different kind of test.
Boston came out flat after its first road trip of the season and wound up in an ugly 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators, with Swayman left exposed. Coming off a four-game, 10-day trip, a slow start would not be a surprise here either, and that puts the spotlight squarely on DiPietro to handle what comes next.
In Other News...
Bruins Have A Nikita Zadorov Problem They Cant Ignore
Bostons strong start has come with a familiar trade-off on the blue line, and Nikita Zadorov sits right in the middle of it. The Bruins have long valued his size, edge and ability to disrupt opponents, because when hes on, he can change the tone of a game in ways few defensemen can. But the early-season picture has been more complicated, with his play drawing scrutiny for the kind of undisciplined mistakes that can undo a good night in a hurry.
The concern is not just the penalties themselves, but the broader impact they have had on Bostons five-on-five play. The Bruins can live with some risk if Zadorov is tilting the ice in their favor, yet there has been a growing sense that the balance has been off lately, enough to lead to disciplinary scratches and renewed questions about how much rope he should get. For a team trying to build on its strong start, the issue is no longer whether Zadorov matters, but whether the Bruins can keep tolerating the version of him they have been getting. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Fast Start Is Starting To Feel Like Something Bigger
A West Coast trip can tell you a lot about a hockey team, and the Bruins came home looking every bit like a group that belongs in the conversation. Boston won three of four out west, swept through the three California stops and only missed a perfect trip by dropping an overtime decision to Dallas, a run that has already started to reshape how the rest of the league sees them.
The rankings bump followed quickly, with Boston climbing in both major national power lists, but the more interesting part is what comes next. The Bruins now get to bring that momentum back home for a stretch that includes Nashville and San Jose, a chance to see whether this fast start is merely a strong opening or the beginning of something sturdier. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Late-Game Choice Put Marco Sturm Under The Spotlight
When the Bruins came out of Dallas with one point after a 2-2 tie late in the third period, the attention shifted quickly from the comeback itself to how Marco Sturm managed the closing stretch. With the game in a tough arena and the result hanging in the balance, the first-year coach leaned on a more protective approach in the final minutes and through overtime, a choice that stood out even more because of the lineup decisions he made after the Stars pulled even.
The move left some of Bostons younger players on the bench as the Bruins tried to secure at least a point on the road trip, and it underscored how much Sturm is weighing development against game-state realities early in his tenure. Dallas ultimately finished the rally in overtime, turning a late Boston lead change into a narrow defeat and giving the Bruins plenty to sort through beyond the standings point they salvaged. [Read more 🡒]