Being a Boston Bruins fan has been anything but fun this season. A fact heavily reinforced after the heavy blow they faced, losing 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bruins looked surprisingly stable in their first two games after a trade deadline shake-up. But Thursday’s loss to the Ottawa Senators humbled them, and Saturday night against the Lightning exposed even more cracks within the team, as it looks now, and the players have not held back.

All that being said, the loss against the Lightning almost began as a ray of hope with the Bruins setting the pace well initially. Yes, it did feel like a promising reset after the Thursday meltdown. Boston started by giving up an early goal but answered right back, a comeback that fans missed back on Thursday. They headed into the first intermission tied 1-1.

Then, everything fell apart in spectacular fashion in the second period. The Bruins didn’t even try to pick a battle and win it for their fans. Not only did the Bruins fail to put a single puck in the net in those 20 minutes, but they also allowed three goals. Jeremy Swayman came up with some big saves to prevent an even bigger collapse, but with no offensive push, Boston was left scrambling in a game that quickly took the wind out of their sails. Pavel Zacha really put it best when he said, “We deserved it.”

Zacha’s words came close on the heels of Elias Lindholm‘s brutally honest assessment. He said, “It was embarrassing. The compete level was nowhere to be found. Unacceptable. The fans pay a lot of money to come here & watch us play. They have every right to boo when the effort was like that. The second period was the worst I’ve seen us play this year.”

Fans were not at all at peace with that kind of performance, as they whistled their boos, making their thoughts crystal clear. Lindholm’s words didn’t go down with an already irate Boston Bruins fanbase after his own underwhelming season. Now with two back-to-back humiliating losses, where do the Bruins go next? Well, there is some self-belief still left in the team, though many may not agree with who exactly has that self belief.

A goaltender shaped dilemma for the Boston Bruins coaching staff

If you look at the two scorelines, 6-3 to the Senators and 2-6 to the Lightning, it’s easy to spot the commonality. Yes, the Boston Bruins underperformed, but their goaltender also contributed to the shipping in of 12 goals over 2 games. Swayman may have been hooked on both occasions, but his performance set the initial tone.

For his part, Swayman hasn’t shied away from the media. “Nobody respects us, and that’s something that we need to get behind, and I think that we can do it,” he told reporters. “I know that we have something special here to be successful, and we don’t get results. That’s frustrating. We just have to keep ourselves to a standard that has been met every game, which we need to work on.” Swayman certainly has the will to succeed, but can he turn things around?

Well, this season has certainly come as a letdown from the last, when he and Linus Ullmark formed quite the devastating goalie tandem. But Jeremy Swayman’s downturn in form this season, coupled with Ullmark’s steady rise, has some fans questioning whether the Boston Bruins made the right decision in the summer to offload Ullmark and retain Swayman.

After all, Swayman did have age on his side, as well as a more impressive showing in last year’s playoffs. But this season tells a different story with Swayman posting a .897 SV% and a 3.00 GAA. This is a huge comedown from 2023-24, when he had a .916 SV% and a 2.53 GAA.

But then again, this is an entire team in rebuild, and Jeremy Swayman isn’t the only offender. When it comes down to it, whoever scores the most goals wins, and the Boston Bruins’ offense has not been looking good, barring David Pastrnak. So should Swayman receive all the blame? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.