Any Boston Bruins fan who had to sit through the Joonas Korpisalo experience for the better part of the past two months was likely shaking their head at the latest goaltending tandem ranking from The Athletic. If you're asking which single goaltender deserves the most love in the NHL this season, Jeremy Swayman has to be in the conversation, and any Bruins fan would say that their starter has to play the majority of the games down the stretch to give the team a chance at the playoffs.
The Athletic's Jesse Granger revealed his rankings of the best goaltending tandems in the league and gave Swayman and Korpisalo seventh on the list. They are ahead of some other great tandems in the league, with ironically two of them being the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars, who feature both of Swayman's Team USA goaltending teammates.
Swayman has been on a tear this season, as evidenced by his 20.5 goals saved above expected. The Bruins have quietly been one of the leakiest defensive teams in the league, and there are many nights where their starting goaltender is the only thing keeping them in it. However, there are other nights where the team plays a great game, but Korpisalo is the starter and has fans gripping their couch with every shot that the other team fires his way.
Korpisalo is 11-9-2 despite a .892 save percentage and a -2.9 goals saved above expected. It's an interesting case study, as it seems like the Bruins are playing better in front of Korpisalo, who is benefiting from a record that shouldn't be as good as what it is. Unfortunately for Swayman, he has been the team's rock all season, and there are a lot of nights when he is hung out to dry.
Korpisalo has an .868 save percentage over his last five games. Marco Sturm has been trying to get him some more starts in an attempt to preserve Swayman, but it's getting to the point where the team can't afford to relinquish any points, and any night where the Finnish goaltender is between the pipes is a bad scene.
The Bruins will take any love from the national media they can get. However, this ranking of the goaltending tandem seems a bit of a stretch, as one of the individuals is doing much more to prop up the tandem's stats than the other.