Tuesday night represented a perfectly normal, incredibly average preseason game between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden.
The Bruins won the game 4-1. Elias Lindholm looked good in his debut. Brad Marchand, also making his first appearance, knocked off some rust before leaving early with an illness. Battle-tested veteran Tyler Johnson solidified his bid to make the opening night roster.
The relatively dominant performance, albeit against only a portion of Philly's presumed regular-season roster, also displayed how the Bruins can best absolve Jeremy Swayman's absence. The standout goaltender's holdout doesn't show any signs of ending anytime soon. If anything, this week's volleys from each side indicate theres' still work to be done.
If and when that deal is struck -- and the Bruins remain confident they can find common ground with the 25-year-old -- there's still going to be ramp-up time for Swayman before he's back in regular-season game shape. The Bruins will play a chunk of their schedule before Swayman again assumes the No. 1 role.
How they'll fill his void, in the most basic of terms is obvious. Joonas Korpisalo gets the nod, getting the start on opening night and will probably see a heavy workload in the first month or so. Brandon Bussi, who has yet to make his NHL debut, will probably break camp as the backup.
There are question marks abound over each. Korpsialo struggled last season in Ottawa. Bussi is unproven. Expecting either to be Swayman is foolish. Instead, the pressure is actually on head coach Jim Montgomery and the rest of his team to replicate Tuesday night's effort more often than not.
It's no surprise that Bussi, who struggled in his first two exhibition games, looked his best Tuesday night. The Bruins rolled out a veteran-heavy group that included five of their presumed six core defensemen. Boston suffocated the Flyers, limiting Philadelphia to just 14 shots on goal.
The Bruins did so by largely protecting the house, keeping the Flyers away from the front of the net.
Do that consistently and it won't matter much who's in net.
The Swayman drama has understandably taken some of the attention away from the Bruins' other offseason news. It was telling, though, that in the season premiere of "Behind the B" that both Montgomery and general manager Don Sweeney were in agreement this version of the Black and Gold would be much better down the middle.
"We're much stronger up the middle," Montgomery said to the room after Boston's initial free agency rush that included signing Lindholm and hulking defenseman Nikita Zadorov.
"That's the whole point. That's the one piece that should be different (from last year)," Sweeney replied.
Obviously, the Bruins are going to be much better with Swayman between the pipes. He flashed top-10 potential in 2023-24. Take it a step further, and the Bruins' biggest strength a year ago was the two-headed tandem of Swayman and Ullmark. For now, both are gone, and the position is completely turned over.
Those two certainly accentuated the Bruins' system, but the system also helped the goalies. The hope is the same can be said for Korpisalso and Bussi in the meantime.
"I think we played pretty consistently with either goaltender," Sweeney told reporters in a press conference last month. "Now, they were both good, and the team in front of them was good and defensively responsible, and now our D is even bigger. Hopefully it makes it continue to make it easier on goaltending. But no, we should not be adjusting our style of play as to what goaltenders are going to play."
Combine that with the impact goalie coach Bob Essensna and Mike Dunham can make, and there's reason to believe the Bruins can withstand a Swayman absence -- to an extent.
The Bruins' chances at a deep Stanley Cup playoff run are largely tied to Swayman, but if they're truly hopeful they can strike a deal in the first month or two, their institutional foundation should be enough to keep them treading water in the meantime.
