When the Boston Bruins traded goalie Joonas Korpisalo to the New York Rangers back in July, it was a clear sign that they were committing to Michael DiPietro as their backup to Jeremy Swayman. If we're being honest, that wasn't any breaking news.
Korpisalo has been outspoken about his lack of playing time with the Black and Gold since being acquired from the Ottawa Senators as part of the return in the Linus Ullmark deal. If we're being honest, nobody is sure why Korpisalo thought he was going to come to Boston and play more games than he did after Swayman signed an extension right before the 2024-25 season with an AAV of $8.5 million.
However, the time was right to move on from Korpisalo, and Sweeney got the Rangers to take him off his hands. DiPietro had to earn the job, and that's exactly what he did in training camp and in the preseason games. He has only played in one of the first seven Bruins games this season, but after practice on Thursday in Southern California ahead of Friday night's second stop on their four-game road trip, head coach Marco Sturm revealed his plans between the pipes this upcoming weekend on a back-to-back.
Marco Sturm said that Michael DiPietro will start one game this weekend
After practice in Irvine, California, on Thursday afternoon, Sturm said that DiPietro will start one of the two games this weekend, either Friday night against the Ducks or Saturday night against the Los Angeles Kings, per Adam Pellerin of NESN. If we had to guess here at Causeway Crowd, we'll go with DiPietro getting that against the Kings, which would mark the second time this season that be would get the start on the backend of a back-to-back. That happened two weeks ago when he played in a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
Sturm has been riding Jeremy Swayman this season, and that is the correct decision. A Vezina Trophy finalist last season, the former University of Maine netminder is on a mission to be a finalist for the second straight season. He turned back 35 shots fired at him by the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night in a 6-3 Black and Gold win in Northern California.
DiPietro did more than enough to keep his team in his first start against Minnesota as they trailed 2-1 over 40 minutes. It stinks that he might get the backend of back-to-back again with some tired teammates in front of him; thus, this is the life of an NHL backup goalie.
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