When Joe Sacco changed goalies heading into the third period and the Bruins down three in Wednesday’s 5-1 loss, the natural assumption was that Boston’s interim head coach was resting Jeremy Swayman to give himself the option to start him again at home on Thursday.
There was plenty of evidence to support that:
1. Sacco had been hesitant to commit to using Joonas Korpisalo in the second game of the back-to-back on Thursday after announcing Swayman would start Wednesday.
2. Swayman had been terrific making 25 saves behind a bad defensive effort in front of him. So Sacco wasn’t yanking the Alaskan out of frustration at the four goals he’d allowed.
3. If Sacco was trying to use changing the goalie as a spark-the-rest-of-the-roster move, he’d have done it right after the fourth goal in the second period.
But after the game, Sacco said health was another reason for the change.
“He was dealing with something minor,” Sacco said. “We thought it would be best, with how the game was going, to get him out of there. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”
The Bruins, who aren’t having a morning skate with the back-to-back games, host the Senators at 7 p.m. at TD Garden.
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