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Former Bruins goalie has candid take on Swaymanβs fight, Zadorovβs postgame comments
"'We've lost seven in a row. No one's scoring. Like, what are we doing?' That's my thought."
Jeremy Swayman had no regrets on Sunday night when asked about potentially trading punches with Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
Both netminders were willing to drop the gloves and square off near center ice at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday — with Swayman challenging Kuemper after the Los Angeles goalie got into a scrap with Bruins winger Marat Khusnutdinov.
“He touched one of my guys, and I think that was something that I’m not going to accept,” Swayman said postgame of challenging Kuemper, with a potential fight snuffed out by the officials on the ice. “And kudos to him. He stepped up. Just got broken up. … I think it just comes down to sticking up for my teammates.
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“I don’t care who it is. It’s a guy in black and gold. You’re not going to touch him without getting contested. And I care about every one of these guys like a brother, and that’s just the way I felt. Felt like it was my turn to step up.”
Despite Swayman’s willingness to step up and defend one of his teammates, those efforts did little to impact the results on the ice — with Swayman giving up seven goals on just 23 Kings shots en route to a 7-2 loss in Los Angeles.
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Amid Boston’s six-game losing streak and Swayman’s own struggles this season, Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov also raised some eyebrows postgame with his own comments about Swayman’s attempt to fight Kuemper.
“Did you guys appreciate that Jeremy stuck up for Khusnutdinov,” The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa asked Zadorov.
“Is that what it is,” Zadorov replied. “Okay. I don’t know. No comment.”
Speaking on the “Morning Bru” Podcast with fellow NESN analyst Billy Jaffe, former Bruins goalie Andrew Raycroft was asked about Swayman’s actions on the ice Sunday and Zadorov’s seemingly blunt comments.
Prefacing that he himself is not a “goalie fight guy”, Raycroft acknowledged that he didn’t think Swayman seeking out a fight was the right call at that moment.
“‘What are we doing,’” Raycroft responded when asked of his reaction to Swayman challenging Kuemper. “We’ve lost seven in a row. No one’s scoring. Like, what are we doing? That’s my thought. Why are you going out there, Jeremy? … Because I know what Kuemper did wasn’t egregious.
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“I know it wasn’t over the line. I know a guy ran into him for no reason … [Kuemper and Khusnutdinov] were both getting penalties. The refs had both of them, two [minutes] and two [minutes]. Move on. It’s a 3-2 game.”
While Swayman has not been a stranger to challenging other goalies and expressing a willingness to scrap, Raycroft added that goalie fights are more “ceremonial” than anything these days in the NHL.
“I don’t know for sure,” Raycroft said when asked why Swayman has sought out fights in recent years. “My guess — it can’t be to stand up for your teammates, because I’ve been around hockey a really, really long time at this point now.
“I played the position, and I know for an absolute fact that not one of those forwards that I’ve ever played with looked to me to stand up for my teammates. You can’t convince me that any goalie has ever thought that ever in the history of hockey … This is a whole ceremony thing, and the league just doesn’t want it. And again, I’m actually not against it at this point. I think, again, it’s kind of silly for two guys from 200 feet away to go to center ice and fight.”
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As far as Zadorov’s comments, Raycroft noted that the implication of Swayman being the one responsible for standing up for his teammates might have irked the physical Bruins defenseman.
“I took it as, ‘That’s a silly question — because goalies don’t stick up for their teammates. And I have nothing else good to say about that.’ That’s how I took it,” Raycroft said. “I think again, for a guy who does stick up for his teammates, and a guy who actually gets in real fights with people — you can be defensive of people taking that for granted, or taking that lightly. … So that’s the way I took it.
“Very annoyed they lost 7-2. Very annoyed that their goalie is now the story of standing up for teammates when I’m the one who actually does that.”
While Swayman’s struggles and Zadorov’s comments have drawn some headlines in the middle of this sustained slide by Boston, Raycroft also doesn’t believe that there are any festering issues between the Bruins’ netminder and his teammates beyond the frustrations born out of a season that has gone off the rails.
“There’s no big deal today — it’s long gone,” Raycroft said of Zadorov’s comments. “But right after a game. … That’s a kind of night where you’re going to get a random comment, because guys are frustrated [to] no end.”
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