BOSTON — The Bruins goalie conundrum — which is among the many that have landed on Joe Sacco’s desk since he was promoted to head coach — is this:
Should Joonas Korpisalo play more? He’s been Boston’s best goalie so far this season and has been excellent in November.
Or does Jeremy Swayman, who has struggled, need the continued workload to play himself back into the goalie the Bruins were counting on when they signed him to a $66 million contract?
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Once Swayman, signed after his training camp contract standoff, former coach Jim Montgomery speculated that he’d play around 55 of the 82 games. But the goalie has struggled and Montgomery is no longer behind the bench.
Swayman is 5-7-2 with a 3.47 GAA and an .884 save percentage with similar November stats (2-3-1, 3.34, .884). Korpisalo is 4-2-1 with a 2.38 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. He’s 3-0-0 with a 1.46 GAA and a .945 save percentage in November.
Sacco, who coached his second full practice as the Bruins coach on Friday said he was leaning toward playing Swayman on Saturday night in Detroit. After remains to be determined.
“We’re taking it on a day-by-day schedule right now. Korpi came in last night and played well for us. We still have a plan in place for the most part. That’s not to say plans don’t change as we go along over the course of the year,” he said. “We know what we have in Korpi right now. When he’s been asked to come in, he’s played very well for us. We obviously have a lot of faith in Sway. We expect him to be a solid goalie for us moving down the stretch here.”
After facing the Red Wings on Saturday, they’ll have two days off then three in four days – vs. Canucks at home Tuesday, at the Islanders on Wednesday at home against Pittsburgh on Black Friday. Each goalie is likely to get one-half of the back-to-back. Whether or not Swayman starts against the Penguins could signal whether Sacco is moving off the initial plan.
