The Boston Bruins simply love Linus Ullmark: "He's the backbone of our team"

BOSTON -- Entering Game 4 in Sunrise on Sunday, there seemed to be a real chance that Linus Ullmark might be getting the day off. The 29-year-old presumed Vezina winner has been battling through some unspecified injury since the end of the regular season, and the luxury of having Jeremy Swayman available to seamlessly step in and give Ullmark some added rest certainly appealed to Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery as an option.

As it turned out, Swayman did end up playing on Sunday. But not before Ullmark left his stamp on the game -- and the series.

Officially, Ullmark stopped 41 of 43 Florida shots, 10 of which came before the Bruins had landed a single shot on net of their own. That included a dynamite stop on Sam Reinhart, too, when Ullmark sprung off the ice to take away the top shelf at the last moment to stymie a 2-on-1.

By any goaltending standard, it was a spectacular performance -- the Swede's third of the series.

"They came out with a really good push, and he allowed us to weather the storm and start going back at 'em," Montgomery said after the 6-2 Boston win. "I mean that one where he dove across with his body in the first, I mean that's a goal, right? It's a high-end save. He probably made four to six more of those kind. There's one glove save he made too on a rebound that was just spectacular. But he's been doing that for us all year. It's amazing how calm I am when I see scrambles in front of his net, because he's calm."

Ullmark's performance was great, no doubt. But he's also made such showings routine this year.

"Same thing all year, hasn't changed the entire time," defenseman Brandon Carlo said. "His poise and his ability to make some key saves at big times. You see him jumping across the crease there ... some huge saves. He's the backbone of our team for sure, and we all feed off of his energy and his confidence."

Despite that, it won't be the saves that are most remembered from this one. Instead, it will be Ullmark's complete lack of hesitation to remove his blocker, glove and helmet after getting fed up with the latest bit of instigation from Matthew Tkachuk.

In a city that will forever hold Tim Thomas' 2011 playoff run in the highest regard, a Bruins goaltender getting physically involved in a heated playoff series will always be appreciated.

And that's true for Ullmark's teammates, too.

"There's just gotta be something in the water in the goalies' water bottles this year. They all seem to want to be in the mix," said Brad Marchand, referring to Swayman's instances of joining the fray. "I just think emotions run high this time of year, and we've always had the mentality of sticking up for one another. Just another great example of that."

With Montgomery noting that it was a 6-on-5 situation for Florida because of a pulled goalie, the theme of the Bruins sticking up for each other was a constant in all of the postgame comments.

"Yeah, this team sticks up for each other," Tyler Bertuzzi said. "Everyone stuck up for each other, and that's what we do. We try to stay out of it as much as we can between whistles, but that was one of those things where we stick up for each other. ... But yeah, that was good to see out of him. He's a big part of this team, and it's good to show a lot of emotion."

Garnet Hathaway said the team is always willing to stand up for the goaltender, but that protection goes both ways.

"Yeah that goes for anyone in this room," Hathaway said. "Guys stick together in this room. It was like that when I got here, and it's continued to grow."

"You know, as a goalie, you're just expected to stop pucks. You're not expected to take stickwork and someone coming after you," Montgomery said. "So we stick together, and we stuck together. Really proud of our group, how we stuck together there."

Clearly, no Bruins players had any issue with Ullmark getting involved in a physical and emotional playoff game ... but it did come as a surprise to some.

"No, he's usually pretty fair-tempered," Charlie McAvoy said. "But I guess everyone has their boiling point."

"It's interesting, especially, I don't think Linus is going to be the guy initiating much of that to begin with," Carlo said. "Tkachuk is kind of doing a lot of things to try and get under our skin, but for the most part we're doing a great job of keeping it between the whistles, and I'm proud of our group for doing so. But at times, you know, you've gotta show a little passion and pushback, so Linus did a great job in that situation for sure."

Obviously, the Bruins don't want or need their Vezina goaltender to be dropping his equipment on a nightly basis. But in that particular moment, in that particular game, Ullmark made a split-second decision that's sure to endear him even more to a locker room that already held him in the highest esteem.

"I love it," Montgomery said. "He's all in."