Bruins’ Linus Ullmark was reportedly playing through ‘debilitating’ injury during Stanley Cup Playoffs

Linus Ullmark gave up 10 goals in Boston's losses to the Panthers in Games 5 and 6.

Linus Ullmark closed out Boston's first-round series against the Panthers with a 3-3 record and an .896 save percentage. Maddie Meyer / Getty

By Conor Ryan

May 1, 2023

2 minutes to read

Throughout the Bruins’ first-round playoff series against the Panthers, Linus Ullmark brushed aside questions regarding his health.

But the optics out on the ice told another story.

Since getting pulled from Boston’s regular-season win over the Capitals on April 11, Ullmark fell below the lofty standards he set for himself during the regular season.

Despite starting in six of Boston’s seven playoff bouts with the Panthers, Ullmark skipped morning skate twice. Ahead of Game 3, Jim Montgomery tabbed him as a game-decision decision.

Between the pipes, Ullmark struggled with his lateral movement. The 29-year-old netminder was slow to get back on his skates when knocked to the ice.

Given his rigid play and lackluster production in Boston’s crushing first-round exit (3-3, .896 save percentage), it should come as no surprise that Ullmark’s health was reportedly far worse than both he and the Bruins let on.

According to ESPN analyst and former NHL goalie Kevin Weekes, Ullmark “was playing through a debilitating & painful injury that limited his mobility and technique.”

@NHLBruins . Like all teams ; players grit it out to play through major injuries in the Playoffs. My sources tell me soon to be Vezina G Ullmark was playing through a debilitating & painful injury that limited his mobility and technique. @espn @NHL @NHLNetwork #HockeyTwitter
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) May 1, 2023

If that is the case, it makes Montgomery’s decision to roll with Ullmark in six straight playoff games even more puzzling.

Ullmark will likely capture the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top netminder next month, but the Bruins’ record-setting season was built around an effective tandem in net between him and Jeremy Swayman.

Unless Swayman was also hampered by injury, the Bruins had plenty of opportunities to turn to him earlier in this series in order to snuff out the Panthers — especially in Games 5 and 6.

Instead, Montgomery and the Bruins opted to wait until Game 7 to roll out Swayman with the season on the line, with Ullmark giving up 10 total goals in those previous two bouts.

Prior to Sunday night, Swayman logged just 3:11 of ice time against the Panthers in the series, with his last start all the way back on April 13.

“You’d have to ask goalie [coach] Bob [Essensa] a little more in detail about that, but we all thought that he was going to give us the best opportunity tonight,” Montgomery said of the switch to Swayman following Sunday’s 4-3 overtime defeat.

If Boston opted to ride with a physically compromised Ullmark, it’d stand as a familiar consequence for the Bruins in the postseason.

Back in 2021, the Bruins opted to stick with Tuukka Rask in their second-round series against the Islanders, even though he was hampered by a hip injury that eventually forced him into retirement.

Rather than roll with a rookie Jeremy Swayman, the Bruins didn’t budge from Rask — who lost his final three starts against New York while posting an .867 save percentage over that stretch.