NHL Weekend Takeaways: Bruins' Ullmark making a strong Vezina case

For as wide open as the Stanley Cup chase feels at the halfway point of the NHL season, it does seem as though some signature individual hardware is kind of locked down.

Yes, a lot can change in the back half of the campaign, but Connor McDavid has a 14-point lead in the scoring race and the Art Ross Trophy pairs so well with the Hart. A number of defencemen are having fantastic seasons, but Erik Karlsson is on pace for 108 points: If that’s not Norris-worthy, I’m not sure what is.

Then there’s Vezina frontrunner Linus Ullmark.

The Boston Bruins goalie won again on the weekend, picking up his 22nd victory in 25 starts this year when the B’s downed the San Jose Sharks 4-2 on Saturday before pumping the Ducks 7-1 in Anaheim 24 hours later with Jeremy Swayman in the crease.

Speaking of awards with one arm already around them, we can probably ship the Presidents’ Trophy to Massachusetts right now, as the Bruins figure to not only top the league standings this year, but possibly eclipse the all-time points record of 132 set by Montreal in 1976-77 given they are currently on pace for 139 points.

For some reason, though, it seems like you have to get about three or four storylines deep on Boston’s incredible year before you get to Ullmark. We spend lots of time talking about the ageless Patrice Bergeron; the about-to-be-paid David Pastrnak; the early comebacks of Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy from major injuries; even new coach Jim Montgomery might come up before we get to the goalie in the middle of a mind-boggling — even historic — season.

Not sure you want to carve his name on the Vezina yet? Fair. That doesn’t change the fact, though, that Ullmark is first in a handful of categories both standard and advanced, has a chance to put up the best save percentage and goals-against average in some time and would have a real crack at eclipsing the all-time single-season wins record of 48 if he figured to start more games from now through April.

As of Monday morning, Ullmark’s GAA sits at 1.87. The last sub-2.00 GAA we saw among goalies who played at least half the schedule was Ben Bishop’s 1.98 in 2018-19 with the Dallas Stars and the last one better than 1.87 was Brian Elliott’s 1.56 in 38 games for the St. Louis Blues in 2011-12. The last guy to play at least 41 contests and post a GAA better than 1.87 was Roman Chechmanek (1.83) for the Philadelphia Flyers in the Dead Puck Era season of 2002-03.

Ullmark’s .938 save percentage, if it holds up, would be the best since another Bruin — Tim Thomas — posted that same mark in 2010-11, when he claimed the Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophies en route to backstopping Boston to a championship. The only other goalies to post a mark of .935 or better playing at least 35 games since the first expansion season of 1967-68 are Jacques Plante (.940, twice, if you can believe it), Dominik Hasek (.937 in 1998-99), Elliott (.940) that same insane 2011-12 year and Igor Shesterkin (.935) last season.

Martin Brodeur and Braden Holtby share the wins record of 48 and, based on his pace this year, if Ullmark made 56 starts (he’s tracking roughly 50) he’d get to 49 victories. For what it’s worth, Brodeur started 78 (!) games in 2006-07 to collect his 48 W’s and Holtby started 66 in 2011-12 to equal the record.

In many ways, Ullmark’s story fits the typical modern goalie narrative in that he’s big (six-foot-four) and was a late draft pick (sixth round, Buffalo, 2012). If it feels like the 29-year-old has come out of nowhere to do what he’s doing, though, that’s just because we haven’t been paying enough attention to the Swede. From the start of 2018-19 through half of this campaign, only three goalies — Darcy Kuemper, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Juuse Saros — have a better save percentage than Ullmark’s .917 in 158 games. And, remember, much of that time was spent with sad-sack Sabres teams before he inked what is looking like one of the best free-agent deals ($5 million per for four years) in a long while with the Bruins in the summer of 2021.

If winning a title wasn’t Boston’s supreme priority, maybe there’d be some kind of push to get Ullmark more starts to see if he could sniff that wins record. But with Swayman also looking solid recently (.926 SP in past six starts), Montgomery will deploy his goalies in a manner that ensures Ullmark is rested and ready when it matters most.

Still, let’s use the midway point as an excuse to zoom out and appreciate everything Ullmark — and his team — is doing.

Other Takeaways

• One trophy that’s most definitely up for grabs is the Rocket Richard. After his hat trick on Sunday, Pastrnak (32 goals) is one goal behind McDavid (33) for the goal-scoring lead with four more snipers within five scores of No. 97.

• Getting back to goalies, Kuemper — who does have the best save percentage since the start of 2018-19 at .922 — has come back strong after missing most of December (he was pulled from a game in Calgary on Dec. 3 due to concussion protocol). Following Washington’s 1-0 whitewash of Columbus on Sunday, Kuemper has a .934 save percentage with two shutouts in six games since resuming play on Dec. 22.

The real story in Washington on Sunday, though, was both Tom Wilson and Nick Backstrom playing their first games of the season after ACL (Wilson) and hip surgery (Backstrom) made them observers for half the year. Backstrom, in particular, has serious questions surrounding his return at all, so it was tremendous to see the 35-year-old Swede back on the ice.

• One game and two players sent the league’s goals-per-60 stat sideways during the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 4-3 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. Playing his second contest of the season following surgery to repair a torn Achilles, Max Pacioretty got his first two markers as a member of the Canes.

However, those goals came only after Kirill Marchenko staked Columbus to a 2-0 lead, then pulled them even in the third with a hat-trick marker to knot the game 3-3. With eight goals in 15 games, Marchenko’s goals-per-60 sits at 2.40, better than everyone in the league with at least 200 minutes save Tage Thompson (2.62). Sure, the Russian rookie is unlikely to keep that company for long, but the 22-year-old second-rounder from 2018 had 19 points in 16 AHL contests this year during his North American debut. The kid looks like a keeper.

Just for jokes, Pacioretty is now at 3.76 goals-per-60 about 30 minutes into his Canes career. Whatever that number settles in at, it’s likely to be a huge boon for Carolina.

Weekend Warrior

If Karlsson doesn’t claim the Norris, it might be his fellow Swede Rasmus Dahlin. The 2018 first overall pick went off against Minnesota on Saturday, matching a Buffalo Sabres franchise record for D-men with five points.

Red and White Power Rankings

1. Toronto Maple Leafs (25-9-7): Mitch Marner got his 500th career point in a win at home versus Detroit on Saturday and Conor Timmins got his first NHL goal in a victory the next night in Philly: Basically, it was a good weekend for the Leafs.

2. Winnipeg Jets (26-13-1): The Jets earned two more wins on the weekend, but the best sight was them hosting the Ukrainian U-25 team on Friday.

3. Calgary Flames (19-14-8): Just when it felt like the Flames were getting going, Jacob Markstrom gets pulled in a 4-3 overtime loss to the lowly Blackhawks to start a five-game roadie.

4. Edmonton Oilers (21-17-3): After losing in extra time to the Avalanche on Saturday, the Oilers begin a California-plus-Vegas swing Monday night in L.A. and will play nine of their next 12 away from home.

5. Ottawa Senators (18-18-3): Can the Sens burn the tape on the 8-4 loss at home to Seattle on Saturday? They’d allowed just one goal in two games prior to that meltdown.

6. Vancouver Canucks (17-19-3) The 7-4 setback versus Winnipeg on Sunday was the second time in three game the Canucks have allowed six-plus goals.

7. Montreal Canadiens (16-21-3) After going goalless in 26 games to start the year, Joel Armia had a pair in a desperately needed 5-4 win over St. Louis on Saturday, giving the suddenly hot Finn three tallies in his past two outings.

The Week Ahead

• With the NHL season crossing its halfway point on Tuesday and the World Junior Championship now behind us, look for NHL Central Scouting to release its updated rankings for the 2023 NHL Draft this week.

• Ryan Reaves returns to Madison Square Garden as a member of the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.

• Jon Cooper let the world know he was not pleased with his team’s performance on Friday night during a 4-2 loss to the Jets. Maybe this will be a happier week for the Bolts if Steven Stamkos can get to 500 goals on Tuesday when Tampa hosts Columbus or two days later when Vancouver comes to town. ‘Stammer’ has been stuck on 498 since New Year’s Eve.

• P.K. Subban isn’t the best player the Montreal Canadiens have had in the past 20 years, but there’s a strong case nobody electrified the Bell Centre like No. 76 during that time. The Habs will honour the 2013 Norris Trophy winner and notable philanthropist before Thursday’s game versus the Predators squad Subban was traded to in 2016.