The Bruins have a Goaltending Problem

22 comments

1. All stats are from before the game against Buffalo last night

2. The defense and the forwards look confused at times. In the case of the D-men, they're reeling because of injuries for the second year in a row. The forwards aren't helping out the defense too, so there's that. Now they're in a bad position with the goaltending not being able to lift them out of their doldrums. It's truly sad that the state of the team if in such confusion.
   I would send Korpisalo down, no matter that no other team would grab him, it's addition by deletion. I would try Zajicek out first even though DiPietro has earned his stipes. DiPi is an AHL star goalie, and if Zajicek prospers it can open the door to exciting possibilities.
   If he flounders, then give DiPi a shot. I'm sorry if this comes across as cold but this is a business and Don Sweeney protects his players like they're his children. That being said, there's the contradiction: At the 2025 TDL he traded several of his favorite "children" to kick off a "retool."
   It was an admirable thing to do as he had to go against all that he believed in, in doing so. Don Sweeney (to my eyes) is a loyal, caring guy who understands what players go through and how it feels to be discarded.
   For the second year in a row, if he doesn't fix this situation NOW, he's going to have to make even more painful decisions. If that all doesn't work, it may be Don Sweeney whose time has come.
   He's been at the helm for slightly over ten years now, he's made some big blunders (mostly trading away huge assets to get rid of poorly performing free agent acquisitions, which led to his having limited picks at the draft and wasting them on head scratching reaches) that are well documented. He's also made some great trades that kept the teams nose above water.
   If he is fired, there will be a long list of teams lined up to hire him at a premium price.

3. The root cause of the Joonas Korpisalo problem begins with Don Sweeney

   Sweeney botched the timing of the Ullmark trade while at the same time due to his poor drafting and developing, also put himself in a position where they had to get a 1st round draft pick in part of any deal for Ullmark

   Those conditions in turn shrunk Boston’s market for Ullmark down to Ottawa

   Overall, Korpisalo has been a below average netminder in his career with a few periods of being just okay

   A big problem problem? 

   Let’s take a look at the Boston Bruins at 5×5:

   23rd Shots Against

   28th Scoring Chances Against

   28th High Danger Chances Against

   32nd and dead last in xGA

   32nd and dead least in Minor Penalty Minutes

   Don Sweeney also decided to bring in a coach in Marco Sturm whose man-to-man defensive structure is predicated on a BIG THING…

   Being able to skate well and the Boston Bruins are a bottom 5 skating team in the NHL

   So Sweeney traded for a below average back up goalie, to play for a team that is bottom 5 in just about every 5×5 key defensive stat, playing in front of a defense that plays a structure that is designed in nature to play against what they do well

   100% yes Joonas Korpisalo is a below average backup goalie but I’m not sure any NHL backup would do all that better

   Again, this is another Don Sweeney problem as he's done a piss poor job of drafting and developing

   Who's Boston’s best drafted NHL goalie prospect right now? 

   Um, no one because the only guy is really Philip Svedeberg and he’s not even an NHL backup level player

   Dipietro is not an NHL goalie either despite what Bruins homers think.  Just go talk to the guys who cover Providence full time.  He’s a 4A player.  Think Georgii Merkulov, just the goalie version

   And who knows  what Simon Zjack is as he’s just an undrafted rookie who just came over to North America thus there’s zero chance they bring him up to be the backup this season.  

   This is 100% why the Bruins are stuck with Korpisalo, they don’t have any other real other options at the backup goalie position besides him

   I’m not letting Korpisalo off the hook, he needs to be better but again, who did the GM think he was getting when he traded for a bad backup goalie in the first place?

   There is no easy answer to this because if they bury Korpisalo in the minors and Dipietro comes up and gets shelled (which is very likely) now what?  

   Also, no other NHL GM is claiming or trading for Korpisalo which means they have no options this year unless they are willing to part with an asset to get some other team to take all or even just part of his contract which is something I don't think the Bruins would do

   Why?

   One, The don’t have the assets to part with in those kind of ‘fix Don Sweeney” mistakes deals anymore

   And two, there is no guarantee if they were to move an asset with Korpisalo to get rid of him that Dipietro would be any better

   When your farm system is still largely bad you cant just piss away draft capital or prospects "hoping" that it may fix a mistake

   The Bruins are miserably defensively and Korpisalo was never a good backup goalie to begin with

   This marriage was clearly never going to work, it hasn’t and it never will 

   But again, what are the other options?

   All of them are lousy & none of them will make the Bruins even fractionally better anyway because they're rotten defensively & take the most penalties in the NHL

   Any backup level goalie talent wise would & will struggle here

   The only path to not buryimg Korpisalo's contract in the minors or ever just being able to trade him without attaching an asset to the deal would be the Bruins playing better in front of him & Korpisalo playing better behind their defense

   I'm not sure either of those two things will happen anytime soon thus we're back to the fact that they don't have any good options at the backup goalie position & it's the GM that is responsible for this

   Blaming Korpisalo when he sucked in the first place, when he's been put in a position to suck worse than he normally would while he didn't trade himself here…

   I don't know

   That'd be like blaming the iceberg for hitting the Titanic & not the Captain that steered the vessel into it

4. great video as always, presenting facts to support the comments.
   Korpisalo is not living up to what he needs to be… He wanted more games but is showing he can not handle those games.
   Swayman is playing above where he was last year, and he is not really getting left in for blow out after blow out like last season.

   The defense leaving guys open in front of the net, players being able to screen the goalies, and poorly blocked shots being redirected in.
   For some reason peeke is on the ice waayyy to much!
   He was on the ice and screened korpisalo twice last night.
   Lindholm everyone said without him the team just breaks down. Peeke and Lindholm are just unable to defend in front of the net and can’t break the puck out.
   The forwards for some reason think the backhand pass is the best thing to do, and cause turn overs.
   The team is for sure on a skid right now, sturm needs to figure out what is going on.
   Giving up 16 goals in 3 games is not just a goalie issue, that is a team issue.

5. I still genuinely cannot believe the Bruins at one point had the best goalie tandem in the league, a great prospect for either trades/call up in Brandon Bussi, and a genuinely decent outlook for at least the next few years, then decided to blow it all up for literally no reason by trading Ullmark for Korpisalo, immaturely starting a public feud with Swayman like they hadn't already gotten rid of their only bargaining chip, not re-signing Bussi only to have him immediately show he has what it takes, then signing hordes upon hordes of mostly 3rd and 4th liners for all their open spots. Sweeney and Neely are still there pretending like they're trying to win a Cup, and the Jacobs family goes along with it because they don't care since they assume people will still pay to see their original six team lose to the 2025-26 Vancouver Canucks like the suckers we are

6. There's no cure for STUPID!
   THERES YOUR PROOF !

7. Why does everyone blame the goalies? If your defense is crap and your coach is barely a coach what do you think will happen??? The management makes idiotic moves, the owner is a cheapskate so the B's are stuck with bargain hunting. The opposing teams are entering the defensive zone with impunity, the defense can't get out of it's own way. Are these the best goalies in the league? No, but they need a better chance by having their defense do it's job. The goalies are just the spanking board and excuse for a poorly talented and badly coached squad. Pray for a quick end, this is painful to watch.

8. The sad thing is that it really looked like they had a chance to be a dangerous team this year. Now they have dropped off a cliff, and I believe, just like last year, that the team is losing confidence and everything is unraveling. They are not just losing. In the last three games they have been soundly beaten.

9. He needs sun block on the back of his neck

10. Don’t forget Charlie McAvoy, the most disappointing drafted bruins player EVER!!!

11. Korpisalo has his moments but even considering the not-great Bruins defense, he hasn’t given what’s been needed. More to the point, his struggles are impacting Swayman, who was obviously being overworked before Christmas because the coaches couldn’t trust Korpisalo. That’s a problem for a couple of reasons: (1) Swayman can’t handle that kind of load (and shouldn’t need to) and (2) Swayman always seems to perform better when he’s challenged by a strong backup or partner (Ullmark, Daccord at World’s, even Korpisalo earlier this year). Swayman does better when he’s challenged. Korpisalo seems like a lovely human being, but he may need a reset in Providence; let DiPietro come in and push Swayman.

12. As a Sens fan that's why we got rid of Korpisalo AKA Fourpisalo (would let in 4 goals every game). When I heard we traded Korpi for Ullmark I was shocked. He was a huge part of getting us into the playoffs first time in a long time and had a great 1st season with us but now if it makes you feel any better he's been pretty awful for us so far this season. He has an 881 save percentage 2nd last in the league, GAA of 2.95, He's let in the most goals in the league with 82 tied with Saros for last. Definitely starting to get concerned going into this crucial part of the season where we need points I really hope he finds his game and gets on a roll here.

13. Swayman has proven he is only good as part of a tandem. He lacks the stamina for multiple games in a row.

14. Great assessment. 👍
    I'm sorry Joonas is not doing well.

    I wonder about the lights affecting his vision. It's increasingly becoming a problem in young people losing vision spending their lives staring at screens starting so young.

    I have trouble seeing the ice when watching "modern" games at times.
    Hockey arenas we're never that bright.

    But so many devices, blue lights, LED lights are killing human vision.
    Some of us more than others.

    But whatever the problem? He's not happy.
    Not producing.

15. 3:06
    Here’s the bizarre (and damning) thing about Korpisalo’s season, thus far:
    Believe it or not, Korpi has actually done okay versus opponents’ high-danger shots. He has a 82.9% save percentage on high-danger shots this season… which is substantially better than Swayman’s 80.5% high-danger save percentage.
    However… Korpisalo has been really, really bad versus opponents’ non-high-danger shots… 90.4% save percentage. By comparison, almost every NHL goalie has a better save percentage versus non-high-danger shots. For example, Swayman is at 93.9% versus non-high-danger shots.

    The bottom line is: Korpi does make “big saves” this season. Even the “eye test” backs up Korpi’s very good save percentage versus high-danger shots, as he has saved numerous breakaway rush chances-against this season. HOWEVER, Korpi is allowing WAY too many “soft” goals-against on opponents’ low-danger and medium-danger shots.

16. Was it last year or this year where Korpi was saying he wants 40 games a year 😂

17. Defense is terrible. Mcavoy terrible, lorei laughable, the Russian guy is ogre slow.

18. They should have kept Bussi

19. I am surprised at this because I know you watch the games. He has let in a few bad goals (as has Swayman), but far too often the D has left both of them hang out to dry. Last night was a perfect example. And, he kept them in it as the rest of the team basically played 10 minutes of hockey last night. So, is Swayman standing on his head more, yes. Has Korpisalo single handedly lost them games…I don't think he has.

20. The best goalie tandem to nothing. Always knew breaking up greatness for greed was a mistake.

21. MAF incoming

22. The Bruins are 2 points out of a playoff spot and 8 points out of first. This is the half way point of the season. 10 points from first to second to last. Any team in the eastern can still make the playoffs the division is still that tight. Though I think Toronto is deliberating tanking, but that's a different conversation. I can't remember a time when at the halfway point so many teams are in contention. As long as Geekie continues his incredible run the Bruins have a good chance to at least make the playoffs. If Geekie was only having a good season if lieu of the great season he is having, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. As far as the goaltending, no one is blocking for them like past Bruins teams.