The Curious Case of Niklas Svedberg

Jan 8, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins goalie

Niklas Svedberg

(72) during the second period against the New Jersey Devils at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

“What matters is that I played like [expletive], and we lost the game. I think I should take the blame for this loss, and I think I played a poor game.”-Niklas Svedberg

Niklas Svedberg got the start in net after serving as a professional door opener since January 8 last night, but it didn’t last very long. After allowing three goals on ten shots on net in a twenty minute span, Claude Julien decided to take him out of the net and put Tuukka Rask in.

Post-game, after the Bruins allowed two more goals, building an impossible hole to climb out of, Svedberg had nothing but harsh criticism of himself.

“What matters is that I played like [expletive], and we lost the game. I think I should take the blame for this loss, and I think I played a poor game. Obviously, Tuukka has played a lot of games lately, so he needed a night off, and this was a time when I needed to step up, despite not playing that much — up here, at least.”

Svedberg’s start as a number 2 goalie after being number 1 in the American Hockey League for a couple of seasons was fairly calming. He allowed two or fewer goals in four of his first five starts and the Bruins had his back through the tough times, including the recovery of some juicy rebounds. However, things started to look shaky after he allowed 3 goals on 15 shots against Columbus on December 23 and similar efforts last night.

Though Svedberg was hard on himself and takes the majority of blame for the Bruins collapse against the Stars, Claude Julien had some different sentiment;

“Well I think first of all that this guy comes back and plays his first game and we didn’t give him much support at all. I felt bad for him,” Julien said. “You know, he could have used a lot more support to get his confidence back and I think some of the goals coming in from the side obviously you’d like him to have those, but rebounds and our guys aren’t there to clear the rebounds they score another goal. And it was important for me to give our team some life and make that change, but certainly we didn’t give him a lot of help.”

Despite having a few bad games, Svedberg is still a legitimate back up goaltender. For the immediate future, so long as he is able to get the confidence he needs and can play like he was at the beginning of the season, there’s no reason Rask can’t get the allotted rest he needs.

Looking at a distance, if Svedberg is able to bring the top caliber type of play back into his game, the Bruins have a bigger decision to make. They’ll have to consider how long he’ll be content to be the backup to Rask and how much longer he’s be willing to make backup money. As Matt Kalman stated earlier this season; As important as it is for a team like the Bruins to have an elite goaltender like Rask, it’s nearly as important to have a backup that can both match Rask’s statistics and do so with a lot less playing time.