G35 New Jersey Devils vs Boston Bruins: Out for revenge

The Devils played well but fell at the hands of the Bruins last time out. Can they respond with a victory?

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A few notes to get you set for New Jersey’s return to action against the powerhouse Boston Bruins:

Boston’s brick wall

The Bruins were in action on Tuesday night but they elected to start Jeremy Swayman and save Linus Ullmark for the Devils. Not ideal!

Ullmark has quietly performed at an elite level this season in Boston. Yes, elite. He owns a .936 save percentage through 24 games, which is ridiculous when you consider league average comes in ~.900.

And, no, it’s not because he plays behind a strong defensive team and sees nothing but low danger garbage. Ullmark has saved 17.3 more goals than expected based on his workload, putting him *checks notes* 0.1 behind Ilya Sorokin for the league lead.

Ullmark actually leads all goaltenders (10+ games played) in GSAE per start at +0.78. There are 58 different netminders who qualify so that’s no small feat.

Any way you slice it, Ullmark has been one of the league’s best goaltenders this season; if not the best.

The Devils saw that firsthand just a few days ago when they outshot the Bruins 40-25 but left the ice losers, anyway, because Ullmark made big saves while Mackenzie Blackwood did not.

Given the level Ullmark is consistently playing at, he is not giving opponents much margin for error. The Devil have to play very well – and get saves of their own – if they’re going to take out the Bruins this time around.