Poll: To rotate, or not to rotate, that is the question

After spending yesterday giving goaltending clues in the form of Wordle or how Pat Sajak would preview a phrase on Wheel of Fortune, Jim Montgomery ultimately put Linus Ullmark in net for last night's Game 2 vs. the Maple Leafs, staying true to what he's hinted at for last couple of months.

The goalie rotation has made its way to the playoffs, and through two games, it's resulted in a win and a loss for the B's, the latter being the first against the Maple Leafs since Nov. 2022.

Now, let's be clear about one thing, the loss last night was not squarely on Linus Ullmark. While he's a little more herky-jerky in net than Jeremy Swayman and bounces about which can cause a fair bit of panic, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner stopped 31-of-34 shots, including eight against the power play.

Swayman and Ullmark's numbers in the regular season were nearly identical. The rotation has worked wonderfully over the course of the last two regular seasons, and when the team went away from it in the playoffs last year, we all know the result.

But hindsight is 20-20 and every move made at this time of the year is going to be combed through and picked apart. And the fact is Swayman stonewalled the Leafs in Game 1 and is now 4-0 against Toronto this season, while Ullmark is 1-1, with the win coming in OT.

At this point, no one can say they didn't try the rotation, with each man getting a start in the first two and Swayman the overwhelming favorite to be in net for Game 3. But should the former Black Bear step up with another performance similar to what he had in Game 1, should the rotation meet an early end?