We nearly had an NHL goalie fight involving Jeremy Swayman of the Bruins!
Hockey fans were almost treated to one of the most rare and exciting occurrences that the game features – a fight between the two goaltenders. But unfortunately, the on-ice officials decided to pour cold water on what would have otherwise been a thrilling experience for the fans in attendance at Crypto.com Arena.
During Sunday night's matchup between the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings, Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman didn't take kindly to his teammate Marat Khusnutdinov being grabbed from behind by Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, which initially drew a roughing penalty.
Swayman immediately skated out to center ice and challenged Kuemper to drop his gloves, which he appeared to be more than willing to do. However, despite the objections of the crowd, the on-ice officials immediately stepped in and prevented the two from going at it.
Swayman explained following the game that he took offense to Kuemper's actions against Khusnutdinov and wanted to step in to defend his teammate, via ESPN.
“He touched one of my guys, and I think that was something I'm not going to accept,” Swayman said. “And kudos to him, he stepped up. Just it got broken up.”
The Bruins were eventually defeated by a 7-2 final score, dropping their record to 30-33-9.
It's been a difficult season for the Bruins, who traded captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers along with sending Brandon Carlo within their own division to the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as Charlie Coyle to the Colorado Avalanche.
Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman hasn't lived up to his massive new contract
The Bruins effectively signaled that Swayman was going to be their starting goaltender moving forward after they traded Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators. However, Swayman's contract was up and he wanted to be paid as one of the top players at his position in the NHL.
Following a highly-publicized contract standoff that caused him to miss all of training camp and their pre-season schedule, Swayman, and the Bruins finally agreed on a $66 million deal over eight years with an $8.25 million cap hit, which was the sixth-highest of all NHL goalies.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, Swayman hasn't come close to living up to his hefty new cap hit. His record of 20-25-6, with a 3.12 goals-against average and .896 save percentage are hardly numbers you'd expect from a player who demanded a major pay raise.
With the Bruins seemingly in tank-for-the-future mode, it is hard to see things getting any better.
