Has Linus Ullmark made his case to be the Bruins' playoff starter?
Linus Ullmark of the Boston Bruins has been on an absolute tear as of late, and he capped it off with a 37 save shutout in his final regular-season game for 2021-22.
But has he made his case to be the playoff starter? Or has he made Bruce Cassidy's decision even harder?
In the month of April, Ullmark has a 5-1-0 record in 7 games with a goals-against-average of 1.41, and a save percentage of .950. Going back to his last 20 games, he has a record of 12-5-1 with a goals-against-average of 2.26 and a save percentage of .921. Those are some impressive numbers heading into the 2022 NHL postseason.
With Thursday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres most likely being his last appearance for the regular season, these will be the stats Ully will finish with:
Record: 26-10-2
GAA: 2.45
SV%: .917
(1 Shutout)
Ullmark has also won his last three games since returning from an injury he sustained on April 14th against the Ottawa Senators. He took a hard slap shot in the mask from defenseman Erik Brannstrom and left the game after the first period. He was sidelined for three games because of it.
Check out the highlights of Ullmark's shutout last night:
My bet is Linus Ullmark will be the Boston Bruins starter for game one of the playoffs. Jeremy Swayman has one more start against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night. Unless Swayman can match what Ully did last night, it's safe to say it's Ullmark's crease going forward.
Let us know what you think!
