Linus Ullmark, Jeremy Swayman finish season with historically absurd gap over rest of NHL

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins' regular season is over. It was historic in several ways.

With 65 wins and 135 points, the Bruins set new NHL records in both categories. The gap between the Bruins and the rest of the league may be more impressive than those numbers alone. The Bruins won 13 games more than the second-best team in the league, the Carolina Hurricanes. Boston also racked up 22 more points than Carolina, which ranked second in that category, too.

The reasons for that gap are, naturally, multiple. David Pastrnak scored 61 goals, Hampus Lindholm was a monster on the blue line, several players had the best years of their careers, and the team had no discernible weakness.

Another major reason came from the goaltending -- not just from presumed Vezina winner Linus Ullmark, but also from Jeremy Swayman. In fact, the gap between that duo and the rest of the league may be the most impressive stat of all from a season full of them.

The duo won the William M. Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals in the league at 177. The second-best team? That was once again the Carolina Hurricanes, who allowed 36 more goals. The NHL says that's the largest gap between the top team and the second team since the 1990-91 season. Even then, though, the best team allowed 211 goals.

GOALS ALLOWED
1. Boston, 174
2. Carolina, 210
3. Dallas, 215
4. NY Rangers, 216
5. NY Islanders, 217

(For comparison, the gap last year from No. 1 and No. 2 was four goals. The year prior, it was three. This year, it was 36.)

Ullmark and Swayman (and Keith Kincaid, technically, for his one game played) also left quite the gap in save percentage, with Bruins netminders posting a .931 mark on the year. The next-best save percentage was a full 10 points lower at .921 from the New York Islanders.

TEAM SAVE PERCENTAGE
1. Boston, .931
2. NY Islanders, .921
3. Minnesota, .919
4. Nashville, .918
5. Colorado, .917

That's not all that surprising, considering Ullmark's .938 save percentage was 19 points better than second-ranked Alexandar Georgiev, and considering that Swayman has had the third-best save percentage in the NHL since the calendar flipped to 2023.

Additionally, Ullmark and Swayman became the first goalie tandem to have a 40-game winner and 20-game winner in the same season, with Ullmark going 40-6-1 and Swayman going 24-6-4. Individually, Ullmark is just the sixth goalie in NHL history and the fifth since the expansion era began (1967-68) to lead the league in wins, save percentage, and GAA. All of those goaltenders won the Vezina Trophy for those seasons. Jacques Plante (1962) and Carey Price (2015) won the Hart Trophy as well.

Ullmark won't be winning the Hart this year, thanks to the otherworldly season by Connor McDavid in Edmonton. But he will most certainly be taking home the Vezina, and the statistical-based Jennings Trophy already belongs to Ullmark and Swayman.

Obviously, the city of Boston and the players in the Bruins' locker room will be locked in on earning the only trophy that matters. For the time being, though, the goaltending season put forth by the duo of Ullmark and Swayman is worth some shine as the team gears up for what's expected to be a long playoff run.