Swayman's focus helps him as rookie goalie for Bruins entering playoffs

BOSTON -- Jeremy Swayman was 2 months old -- his brand-new ears just barely ready to endure the pings of the pucks and the cheers of the crowds -- when Ken Swayman packed his tiny bundle off to his first hockey game at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He popped the baby into a pack on his chest and sat in his usual spot behind the net, where he had easy access to the locker room to fulfill his duties as a volunteer doctor for the Seawolves.

The younger Swayman was mesmerized from those first days, the goal taking hold in his imagination. Even at a couple of years old, 2 or 3, he would go into the net, mimicking what he had seen in all those games with his father, and so Ken Swayman got in touch with Gordy Morgan, who coached with the Alaska All Stars Hockey Association.
"He gives me these old pads," Ken Swayman said while watching Boston Bruins practice at Warrior Ice Arena recently. "Jeremy's 3 or 4. He says, 'Go home, put them on him, and shoot on him in the garage. I think he's a natural goalie.' So we did."
Two decades later, Swayman is the heir apparent to Tuukka Rask, the longtime Bruins goalie who retired Feb. 9 after an aborted comeback from offseason hip surgery. The rookie has shared the Bruins net this season with Linus Ullmark, and the two are primed for the Bruins' first Stanley Cup Playoffs without either Rask or Tim Thomas since Andrew Raycroft and Felix Potvin manned the position in 2003-04.
The Bruins (49-25-5) lead the Washington Capitals by three points for the first wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference and will host the Florida Panthers, a potential Eastern Conference First Round opponent, on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NESN, BSFL, ESPN+, NHL LIVE).
With that old equipment and some belief -- and still in pre-K -- Jeremy was holding his own with second graders, a pipsqueak in goalie pads, playing for a mite team he had no business making. It kept going that way, for years, as he collected more and more holes in the back of his garage from shooting drills, as he became an 8-year-old assistant to the equipment manager at UAA, as he hit high school.
His fate seemed defined: a future in hockey, a shot at the NHL, a step-by-step process that would result in what had seemed destined from the start. Then, a bump, a promised spot with the Kenai River Brown Bears vanishing at a weekend tryout camp in Minnesota at 16, of which Jeremy Swayman said, "That shaped my whole outlook on hockey and life in general. Talk is cheap."

The recovery was swift. Swayman latched on with the Pikes Peak Miners, a junior team in Colorado, and from there headed to the University of Maine and that glittering future, which commenced when Swayman made his NHL debut for the Bruins on April 6, 2021, at 22 years old.
But between those early years and his current success -- Swayman is 23-12-3 with a 2.37 goals-against average and .915 save percentage in 40 games (38 starts) this season, splitting time with Linus Ullmark -- the goalie had to learn some hard lessons, transferring a laserlike focus on his potential future to a laserlike focus on the moment-to-moment work, the moments themselves that would get him there.
"His dad's really driven -- obviously he's a doctor -- so he comes from that kind of focus and drive," said Alfie Michaud, Swayman's goaltending coach at Maine. "They're probably a family that's got the one-year, five-year, and 10-year plan. So it was a challenge to get him and Ken to understand that, that you've almost got to chuck that out the window. You can write it down and it's awesome to have that stuff, but the real work is in the present."
He has taken to that work as he has taken to the work of becoming a goalie, discovering a preternatural concentration that, paired with the determination to try unconventional methods, like that ballet class back at Maine, has him squarely in the path of whatever five-year plan he once might have had. He has taken everything he has been through, the dropped spot with Kenai River, the reappearance of Rask and his demotion to Providence of the American Hockey League, the lessons of Maine, and used them as fuel and as reminders of how to be.
"It grounded me to the moment, making sure that I'm capturing the opportunity every given day when the sun rises," Swayman said. "If I know I'm doing whatever I can to make the most of the opportunity today, I know it's going to get me to where I want to be tomorrow."
And the Bruins have reaped the benefits.
For now, Boston's goaltending is a joint venture between Swayman and Ullmark, the friends and teammates who have made hugging into a reason to stay late after games, even with the threat of TD Garden traffic ahead. But Swayman is making a bid to be the Bruins' future, taking on a mantle that for more than a decade had been in the hands of Rask and, before that, Tim Thomas.
"That's everything I want," Swayman said. "It's what you dream of. It's what you work for every day. But it's something that I know I have to earn every day."
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But to do that, Swayman has had to make his focus very, very small.
It dates back to his freshman year at Maine, when his singular goal was to become a professional hockey player, so much so that coach Red Gendron and Michaud had to pull him aside and deliver a message.
You will be a pro hockey player, if you're a good Black Bear first.
"That shifted my mindset, of we're only going to focus on that next game, not the game in two weeks or the playoffs," Swayman said. "If you're just focused on today's practice, if you're micro on breakfast and micro on sleep, that's really shaped me and, honestly, made my whole life more enjoyable.
"Because that anxiety and that pressure feel, it just kind of escapes, and all you're worried about is this conversation we're having right now, it's the most important thing to me in the world. And then the next thing I do is the most important thing. That's how I've shaped my outlook on life."

He works through it with breathing, with mental exercises, controlling his thoughts and emotions. He has goals, of course, but he tries to ensure as much as possible that he keeps his focus tight, immersing himself in the preparation for what's closest at hand. "That 3-foot world is all you care about," Swayman said.
It has helped ingratiate him to the Bruins veterans, that focus on each practice, the idea of unstinting effort, the earning of respect because he does not shortchange any of them.
As defenseman Brandon Carlo said earlier this season, "I have a lot to learn from that kid, mentally. He's amazing. He seems to be unfazed by a lot of things."

There was a moment when it truly hit home. It was October of his sophomore year, and Swayman was participating in a Zoom event with Maine alumnus Jim Montgomery, now an assistant with the St. Louis Blues. There was a game against St. Lawrence University ahead, with the University of Minnesota Duluth, the defending national champion, looming the following week.
Swayman asked a question about preparing for Duluth.
After it was over, Michaud pulled him aside.
"That's where we really had to reel him in and make him understand that you've got to be where your feet are at," Michaud said, of the message he had to impart both to Swayman and to Ken. "I think the people that do that, in almost everything, they just enjoy the ride.
"… It's just about getting the most out of the day. The journey will take care of itself."
It clicked, this time for good.
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But it's not the only thing that the goalie took from his time in Maine.
Like the ballet classes.
He had seen a couple of seniors on the team take the class, a goof-off credit. And having finished most of his business classes, he figured, why not? He was taking electives anyway. So, on a lark, he jumped in with two teammates.
"We had some struggles early on," Swayman said.
But they learned too. They saw changes. Body awareness. Balance. Ankle and hip flexibility.
"It was really cool to understand that and then translate that to the ice," he said. "I think it actually helped a lot. Skating and balance was the main thing. … I think in college I would fall on my butt a little more or fall forward. And now, I think it's a little more relaxed and calm, making sure my edges are clean and having crisper strides.
"There's a lot of single-leg stuff in ballet. In hockey too, you're doing a lot of deep pushes, a lot of bobbing back and forth looking through screens. So I think that center of gravity and understanding that from ballet helped a lot to regain balance and be square to the puck."
He doesn't do ballet anymore, but he has taken from the discipline, shifting into Pilates and barre routine exercises, both at home and at the gym at the Bruins facility. So has the program at Maine, where Michaud recommends ballet for his goalies coming through.
"Every goalie coming into Maine is going to be a ballerina from now on," Swayman said with a laugh. "I support it, 100 percent."
The ballet was a small piece of that development, a small piece of everything Swayman took from those three years. For Michaud, who was in his second season working with Maine and four years removed from his playing days when Swayman arrived, it was a process of learning and growing together.
"It's a testament to him," Michaud said. "He's such a treat. He's really involved in his process, in his development. He drives the bus there. People are like, 'What are you doing with him?' I'm like, 'I duct tape his ears. I just duct tape his ears and let him play.' There's not a lot to do."

Michaud wanted to ensure that Swayman didn't get tripped up, knowing that he had the talent and the desire and the confidence to make it to the NHL. He didn't overload Swayman with tape or data, a path the goalie follows to this day.
"I think 95 percent of it was probably mental," said Michaud, also an alumnus of Maine, a school that has produced NHL goalies Ben Bishop, Scott Darling, Mike Dunham, Jimmy Howard and Garth Snow. "He was just really talented. It was just a case of him developing physically, that it was going to come. … I think the biggest thing is the between-the-ears piece. And that's where guys can lose it. There's plenty of guys that have the ability and the talent, it's just they can't manage the mental piece."
It all resonated.
"I wouldn't be here without Alfie, hands down," Swayman said.
And in case he momentarily forgets Michaud's lessons, one of the coach's most salient points is with Swayman every time he takes the ice -- written on his mask, right next to the outline of Alaska.
"It's not rocket science," it says, a message Swayman has wholeheartedly embraced.
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Still, this was not supposed to be the plan.
The plan was for Rask to complete his rehab, to return to the Bruins, to lead them at least one more time into the playoffs. He tried, resulting in a demotion for Swayman on Jan. 12 in the wake of Rask's return to the NHL after offseason hip surgery, something that devastated the young goalie.
"He was like, 'What did I do wrong, Dad?'" Ken Swayman said, admitting that the emotions of his son echoed clearly the time he was cut from Kenai River. "I'm like, 'Nothing. This is not on you. This is because Tuukka comes back. He earned it.' That's how [Jeremy] accepted it."
But Rask's body did not cooperate, and he retired Feb. 9. The net again belonged to Swayman and Ullmark.
The relationship between the goalies had been quick to form. Almost as soon as Ullmark signed a four-year, $20 million contract ($5 million average annual value) with Boston on July 28, he reached out to Swayman, got in touch, started a bond that has only grown.
Their personalities matched, both easygoing and fiercely competitive. Ullmark made it clear from the beginning that he would never be angry at Swayman for earning a start, never resent him, that he wanted the best for him.
"I just knew right away that he was going to be a quality guy," Swayman said. "Meeting him for the first time, it was an instant connection. I can't say enough good things about him. He's been such a great mentor and friend to me. We've grown so much together, and it's just going in the right direction."

But no one could have predicted how much fun they would have, the exaggerated hugs they share after every win becoming a part of Bruins lore, with copycats popping up everywhere, in youth programs and juniors, with the image being screen-printed onto T-shirts and pucks.
It wasn't intended that way -- as Ullmark said, "We don't do it for anybody else, we do it for each other. It's genuine affection for the guy that's played the game" -- but the love is multiplying, the bond between them clear, the two of them productive for the Bruins.
Still, Rask's shadow looms.
Despite the at-times conflicted feelings about Rask, about the Bruins not winning either of the Stanley Cup Final series with Rask as the No. 1 goalie, he was brilliant during runs in 2013 and 2019. He knew the pressure of Boston and the especial pressure of Boston in May and June.
He understands what's ahead for Swayman in particular, for a goalie he called very talented.
"I know what it's like to play here as a young goalie," Rask said. "There's a lot of pressure on you. I told him right after I retired, 'Call me if you need anything, and just make sure that you don't get too high or too low because it's easy to kind of snowball from that either way.' So that's what I'm looking forward to helping him on."
It is all he can do, as Swayman and Ullmark get set for the playoffs and the Bruins head into the unknown, with 18:34 of relief work by Swayman in Game 5 of the second round last season against the New York Islanders the only experience either goalie has in the NHL postseason.
"It is significantly different," general manager Don Sweeney said. "You have a goalie in years past in Tuukka that you probably knew right from the get-go if he was healthy that he was going to be able to take a run."

That's not the case now.
"At the end of the day someone's going into net that hasn't played in the playoffs for us," coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We're aware of that, fully aware of that. And the way they're going to be judged is who's on top of their game, who's consistent, and they're both competing hard and doing a good job with that right now."
There are more intense games ahead, the final ones of the regular season, in the first round, and beyond. There are moments that will test Swayman's resolve, his consistency, his moment-to-moment focus.
He is guaranteed nothing.
But he is prepared to take on Rask's net, prepared alongside Ullmark, as they help the Bruins into the next phase, the next era, into the next playoff game.