Jeremy Swayman explains his outburst at Bruins bench in Game 4

Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman didn’t mask his emotions after getting pulled in the third period of Sunday’s Game 4 blowout loss to the Sabres.

​Swayman — who was knocked for six goals allowed on 29 shots — had little help in front of him by a Bruins defensive structure that completely splintered against Buffalo. All four of the Sabres’ tallies in the first period were the direct result of D-zone turnovers.

​After Swayman got the hook in the third period after Buffalo tallied two more goals just 1:24 apart, cameras captured the 27-year-old netminder appearing to shout at the Bruins’ bench for a few seconds before making his way down the tunnel.

Speaking a day later at Warrior Ice Arena, Swayman was asked about his outburst in an eventual 6-1 loss at TD Garden.

​“We have an extremely high competitive group,” Swayman said. “We have a standard we carry ourselves to. It wasn’t met. So that was just emotion. It’s moved on now, and we have a job to do, going to Buffalo.”

With the Bruins’ season now on the brink amid a 3-1 series deficit, Swayman said players need to choose the right time and situation to let their emotions spill out during a game.

Despite Sunday’s ugly stat line, Swayman has largely been the main reason why Boston is even in the postseason, ranking second in the NHL with a whopping 28.8 goals saved above expected during the regular season (per MoneyPuck).

Prior to Sunday’s debacle, Swayman sported a .931 save percentage in his first three games against Buffalo in this best-of-seven series.  

“You definitely pick and choose times that, especially a goalie, can show emotion,” Swayman said. “But at the same time, again, we win as a team, and we lose as a team. And everyone in here has a standard that we know we’re capable of, and I think that’s what really is the underlying cause here.

“Again, we know we have a job to do. We know we can compete at an extremely high level, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Despite the optics of a player laying into his teammates in the middle of a game, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm had no issue with Swayman’s blunt comments when asked about it immediately after Sunday’s loss.

“Absolutely, at least one guy [had fire], right? It was not his fault today,” Sturm said of Swayman. “I can tell you that. I felt bad for him. That’s why we kept him in there for a while, because he’s a battler. He wants to be in.”​

If the Bruins want to keep their season alive and force a Game 6 back at TD Garden later this week, they’re going to need to rely on Swayman to keep them afloat going into Tuesday’s Game 5 matchup at KeyBank Center.

Even though the Sabres have yet to cash in on the power play so far in this series, they’ve largely controlled play at 5-on-5 action — outscoring Boston, 12-6, and holding a 95-57 advantage in scoring chances over that extended stretch of play.

“Absolutely, and that shows that we can compete with the best teams in this league and be successful,” Swayman said of Boston’s encouraging play in Buffalo in Games 1 and 2. “And I think that’s why our standard is so high, as it should be, and we have a boatload of reasons to know why we can be successful.

​“It’s a great opportunity,” he added of Tuesday’s game. “And I think we played a lot of the season like a Game 5 mentality — with backs against the wall, and understanding that we have something to prove to ourselves and everyone around the league. I think that we should feel comfortable in a position like this.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.