Linus Ullmark, David Krejci keeping proper perspective amid Bruins' torrid stretch
BOSTON -- When it comes to the Bruins' preposterous 15-2-0 record, certain elements were to be expected. David Pastrnak leads the team in points, and captain Patrice Bergeron isn't too far behind. Hampus Lindholm held down the D corps before Charlie McAvoy's debut, and Brad Marchand has been reliably excellent since returning from offseason surgeries.
But of course, an NHL team can't compile such an obscene win-loss record without some pleasant surprises cropping up along the way. And goaltender Linus Ullmark certainly fits that bill.
The Bruins organization obviously showed its belief in Ullmark by giving him a four-year, $20 million contract on the first day of free agency in 2021. His first season in Boston was good but not necessarily great, and with the younger and cheaper Jeremy Swayman playing more or less at the same level as Ullmark all year, questions about that Ullmark contract for a cap-strapped team persisted.
This year, things are quite different.
After stopping 22 of 23 Philadelphia shots on Thursday night, Ullmark furthered his place as the NHL leader in save percentage (.937) and goals-against average, where his 1.89 GAA is 0.18 goals better than second-place Connor Hellebuyck's 2.07.
Most importantly for the Bruins, Ullmark also leads the league in the wins category, as he's now 12-1-0 on the season. Vegas' Logan Thompson ranks second in the NHL with nine wins.
Last year, Ullmark didn't pick up his 12th win until Jan. 12. This year, he's got a dozen wins in his back pocket a week before Thanksgiving.
While it's been a rather remarkable stretch personally and for the team, Ullmark shared his perspective on the current state of the Bruins after Thursday's 4-1 win.
"Just gotta stick with it. It's a long season. Can't get too ahead of ourselves, because as fun as it is and people will say we've had it easy, it's not easy," Ullmark said. "It's a lot of circumstances during a game, a lot of bounces that we currently have and gotta keep working on. And you don't get those for free."
While Ullmark has been excellent when needed, keeping the puck out of the net has been a team effort for Boston. Ullmark has only needed to make 59 save on high-danger shots this year, the 13th-most in the NHL. The Bruins have also been the NHL's best team at putting the puck in the opponents' net, with a league-high 68 goals and four goals per game average thus far.
With 19 different goal scorers, the contributions are coming from the entire lineup.
It's there that another pleasant surprise can be found in David Krejci. On Thursday, half the scoring came from Krejci, who scored his third and fourth goals of the season after playing last year in the Czech Republic. In 2020-21, Krejci scored just eight goals in 51 games, but he now has half that total in just 14 games.
Krejci, who's been through a decade and a half of NHL seasons to know how to see things properly during this dizzying stretch.
"It's hard to win one game. But to win this many games -- you know, 17 games, 15 wins -- that's crazy. No one expected that," Krejci said. "But we're staying even-keel here. We're focusing on the task at hand. And that's something we've been doing a pretty good job at. We always put the game behind us and we move on."
Krejci credited the leadership group for practicing "the right way," with everyone else falling in line. But when told that even the Stanley Cup-winning Bruins team didn't have a record like this to start the 2010-11 season, Krejci interrupted the question.
"Yeah, I wouldn't get carried away," Krejci said. "Obviously we have a great start, but it's a long season. You know, it's a really long season, and we're gonna hit some rough patches. That's just the way it is. But for right now, we're rolling, so we'll try to get as many wins as we can. Not really focusing on too much ahead."
