When an NHL team comes off a long road trip, as the Boston Bruins did on Thursday night at the TD Garden when they hosted the Nashville Predators, the first game is generally one of the tougher ones during an NHL season.
You can make the case that the last game at the end of a long trip is tough, as players see the light at the end of their tunnel to finally go home and see their families. That was the case on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars. The Black and Gold were looking for a four-game sweep of their West Coast trip after sweeping the three California teams. However, the Bruins were unable to hold a 2-1 lead entering the third period and lost, 3-2, in overtime.
Goalie Jeremy Swayman did everything he could over the final two periods to get his team the loser point and make sure Boston returns home with seven out of a possible eight points. Swayman played in three of the four games on the road, and it isn't surprising that head coach Marco Sturm is making a switch between the pipes against the Predators.
Bruins to start Michael DiPietro against Predators
After Thursday morning's skate at the TD Garden, Sturm announced, according to Adam Pellerin of NESN, that Michael DiPietro will start against Nashville. It actually might be the least bit surprising news of the season to date, if we're being honest.
This will be DiPietro's third start of the season. He dropped his first outing against the Minnesota Wild, then picked up his first career NHL win last Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks. He allowed both Ducks' goals in the final minute of the first period before stopping everything else thrown his way to finish with 26 saves in the 4-2 win.
When the Bruins traded Joonas Korpisalo back in July, it opened the door for DiPietro to be Swayman's much cheaper backup, and he proved himself over the last couple of seasons in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Providence Bruins. However, this is going to be a different challenge for him. Boston struggled mightily coming off their first road trip of the season and left Swayman out on an island all by himself in an embarrassing 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators.
Coming off a four-game, 10-day road trip, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Black and Gold come out slow to start, which will put more pressure on DiPietro. We'll see how he handles it.
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