Swayman poised to help honor retired Bruins captain Bergeron's legacy

BOSTON -- Jeremy Swayman knows there will be a significant void when he walks into the Boston Bruins' dressing room at the start of training camp.

There will be no Patrice Bergeron and no David Krejci, players who have been the backbone of the Bruins season after season.

Swayman also believes that the players who remain and are ready to grab hold of a team in transition are set up to succeed.

That is part of the legacy that Bergeron left.

"We're going to have the tools we need to succeed," Swayman said at their practice facility Tuesday. "And I can't wait for that."

Swayman also knows being without Bergeron is going to change things. Significantly.

"He's a player we're going to miss, the game of hockey's going to miss," Swayman said. "He's put in such an incredible foundation for the Bruins and being a young guy, in this young core that's going to be part of this organization for a long time, we're going to do everything we can to continue the legacy that he's built and guys before him as well, [Zdeno Chara], incredible guys.

"We have that older leadership that was built by him, so we're going to do everything we can to honor his legacy and make sure we do everything we can to be great humans, great Boston Bruins and good hockey players."

The Bruins not only lost their captain when Bergeron retired after 19 seasons, they made other changes, trading forwards Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall to the Chicago Blackhawks and not re-signing defenseman Connor Clifton. They added a slew of veterans on one-year contracts, including forwards Milan Lucic and James van Riemsdyk and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk.

"It's sad. It's the business of hockey," Swayman said. "At the same time, what an opportunity to meet so many new players coming in. You hear such great things about these guys coming in."

Swayman went through his own bout with the business of hockey, being awarded a one-year, $3.475 million contract after going to salary arbitration with the Bruins. The 24-year-old goalie was 24-6-4 with a 2.27 goals-against average, .920 save percentage and four shutouts in 37 games (33 starts) last season, teaming with Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark to win the William M. Jennings Trophy awarded to the goalies who allowed the fewest goals in the regular season.

Swayman helped Boston to the best regular season in NHL history, setting records for wins (65) and points (135) before a stunning Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference First Round.

It's a loss that still stings for Swayman and has pushed him since.

"I've stuck around Boston this summer and there's a big reason for that," he said. "I knew I was going to get the best training, the best coaching and the best atmosphere to get better. That was a commitment that I wanted to make personally to make sure that I was going to do everything I could to not have that feeling again in Game 7. I think it's been one of the better training years of my life."

The Anchorage, Alaska, native has balanced weekday training in Boston and outdoor excursions on the weekends, with a Mount Washington hike in New Hampshire with teammate A.J. Greer slated for Wednesday. The goal is to be even better than he was last season, push himself and, therefore, Ullmark as well.

"There's nothing separating that guy and I," Swayman said. "If we didn't have [the competition], we'd be (mad) at each other because then we wouldn't elevate our game. That's something we really take seriously because if I'm not competing as hard or he's not competing as hard in practice, we know that if we slump in games, the other guy's going to take that net. And that's going to elevate our level every single game."

That's the key for the goalies. It's also the key for the rest of the Bruins, a group that will need to be at its best every night to come anywhere close to replicating the results of last season and perhaps exceeding them in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They will take those lessons from Bergeron and draw on them as they head into the upcoming season, even if the captain himself is no longer there to impart his wisdom.

"Just that quiet confidence, just always knowing that there's never a doubt, being in games especially," Swayman said. "Having that vocal presence in the room, that's going to be a little bit different.

"I'm excited to see the guys that step up, me being one of them. I'm going to make sure that the years' experience I have is going to help me be a voice in the room a little bit more. At the same time, he led by example. Guys didn't need him to say something necessarily react and do something. That's something I'm going to want to do is to be that steady heartbeat that guys can lean on. Everyone in that room has that that's played with him."