The two former teammates will meet off on Saturday night at the TD Garden.
November is a month when Boston Bruins supporters mark a lot of home games on their calendars. It’s a month when some former colleagues will return to the TD Garden to play their first game since leaving via trade or free agency. The first game is on Saturday night, when a former goaltender returns to the place he called home for three years.
In June, Boston general manager Don Sweeney dealt goalie Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a 2024 first-round selection pick, winger Mark Kastelic, and goalie Joonas Korpisalo. Ullmark will return with his new companions for the first time in 2024-25.
Linus Ullmark makes Boston return
Ottawa will play at the TD Garden at 7 p.m. after losing 4-2 at home to the New York Islanders on Thursday night. Ullmark did not play in that game, but Korpisalo did, as the Black and Gold defeated the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime that night. That implies one thing: it appears to be a Jeremy Swayman vs. Linus Ullmark showdown between the pipes. Ah, the drama.
Ullmark is 2-4-0 in seven games for the Senators this season, with a 3.02 GAA and.892 save percentage. After not being moved with a contract extension as he was about to become a free agency next summer, he signed a deal to stay with Ottawa in October. For the first time, he will face his former teammate and best friend on the opposite end. After practice on Friday, Swayman discussed Ullmark’s return.
“It still hasn’t hit,” Swayman explained. “It still feels like I have his presence around here and the traditions that we had still live on, We’re brothers for life”
As far as the Bruins are concerned, they did well in the deal, picking Dean Letourn in the first round of the draft over the summer, while Kastelic has three goals and seven points in 15 games for Boston, with a plus/minus of +8. He has played an important role in the team’s bottom lineup. Korpisalo is 3-2-0 in six games this season, with a 2.72 GAA and.900 SV%.
Whatever the outcome of the game, there will be no goaltender embraces. It will be strange to see Swayman and Ullmark face off, but the move has been completed, both players have new contracts, and an Atlantic Division rivalry is set to begin.
