If you’ve ever seen a Boston Bruins win live on television, it’s a tradition for goaltenders Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman to extend their arms and wrap each other up in a warm embrace. Fans across the NHL have deemed this the famous “goalie hug.”
It all started in the 2021-2022 NHL season during the first regular season game featuring the Bruins versus the Dallas Stars. It was Swayman’s first season with Boston after ending his collegiate career at the University of Maine. It was also Ullmark’s first season with the team after signing as a free agent from the Buffalo Sabres.
“It was an emotional game, it was super exciting. [My] first Opening Night.” Swayman said in an interview with Sportsnet.
Since the 2021-2022 season, both Swayman and Ullmark have flourished in their roles with the Bruins. They have made the Stanley Cup playoffs every single season since playing together and won the Presidents’ Trophy last year in a historic season. Along with that, Ullmark received the Vezina Trophy for the NHL’s best goaltender at the 2023 NHL Awards.
In their 2023-2024 campaign, they both have a combined save percentage of 0.925%. For these friends, though, the journey to these accolades has not exactly been sunshine and rainbows only.
Ullmark grew up just like any other young boy obsessed with hockey and dreaming of playing in the NHL. He often touches on how big of a figure his father was in his early years, always making him and his friends a fresh sheet of ice to play hockey on in the winter.
Realizing that goaltender was the right position for him, Ullmark began playing with MODO Hockey, a professional club in the second-tier league based out of Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, during the 2009-10 season. He started at the bottom of the depth charts but gradually made his way up. He was rewarded with his efforts by being drafted 163rd overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2012 NHL entry draft.
You would think that any player would be ecstatic to have a chance to play professionally, but that wasn’t necessarily true for Ullmark. In his first few seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, his father’s serious issue with alcoholism suddenly came to light.
In a recent Sportsnet interview, he touched on a specific morning skate where he completely broke down. “I just hit the spot where everything just crumbled,” stating how he didn’t know throughout his childhood that his father was an alcoholic. He “wasn’t prepared” for dealing with that, after realizing the magnitude of this issue.
At that morning’s skate with his goalie coach, he considered quitting hockey altogether. This was because he felt that he needed to move back to Sweden and take care of his dad.
The peak of those struggles occurred throughout the 2014-15 season as his statistics declined tremendously and his father’s issues got worse, often with him ending up hospitalized.
To cope with this, Ullmark began seeing a psychologist. He stressed how the phrase “it’s okay to not be okay” was the first lesson he had to learn. He also learned how to be more open about his feelings and how to stop bottling his feelings up to the point where they would explode.
With this new philosophy on his life, he remarked that his positive moments felt stronger, while his darker moments carried less weight.
In 2015, he left MODO to finally play for the Buffalo Sabres and realized that his father’s problems weren’t his to take on. Although he had to switch between the Sabres and their AHL affiliate, he was still achieving his dream of becoming a goalie in the NHL.
His father passed away in his sleep in January of 2021 at the age of 63. Ullmark mentions that his son, Harry (5), and daughter, Lily (3), helped him cope with the loss.
“When they came to the world, it certainly felt that I became whole. That strength that comes through family is so powerful,” said Ullmark.
The Bruins veteran said how “losing a loved one is the worst thing to happen in the world,” but his father’s death is a “relief” to him now because the uncertainties lasting for multiple years are no longer a burden on his family. But with this loss, he felt alone and that there was “no more hug.”
With the loss of a loved one, he also gained a new friend. That brings us to Swayman, who continues to be the hug he never knew he needed.
Boston was the light at the end of the tunnel for the Ullmark family. When he speaks out about Swayman or “Uncle Sway,” as deemed by his kids, he has nothing but high praise. He describes the relationship between the two of them as “pure love” and how he’s “family.” Getting emotional, Swayman talked about their relationship, saying, “It wouldn’t be possible without him and his wife, Moa Wikman, just accepting me and allowing me to be a big part of their family and I truly feel that way too.” The Alaskan native also talked about how every time he calls his father, he asks, “How is Linus doing?” and how Ullmark is like a second brother to him.
A famous quote from Albus Dumbledore, a famous character from the “Harry Potter” series, reads “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
Now, every time at the end of a Bruins win, you won’t see it as just a normal goalie hug. It is a symbol of brotherhood and love. Even in the darkest of times, you will eventually find someone to turn on the light.