The Jeremy Swayman saga is a calculated PR attack. Sloppy, but calculated

A look at how things worked with some of the NHL's biggest news yesterday.

There was a lot made about Jeremy Swayman yesterday.

Negotiations for last remaining restricted free agent went public when Boston Bruins president Cam Neely publicly said that Swayman has “64 million reasons” to sign.

Swayman’s agent, Lewis Gross, then fired back that such an offer — eight years, $8 million per season — had never been issued.

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In the midst of all of that, Jim Montgomery announced that Joonas Korpisalo would be the opening-night starter. At the same time Don Sweeney sat by both statements.

It looked sloppy and messy, led to social media blowback for both sides, and Swayman stories led the news cycle.

For me, waking up on Tuesday, this felt so much like what happened when the Dallas Stars fired that famous fecal horse matter scud missile at Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.

Let’s step back and let me explain, because this is very much from the Jim Montgomery playbook.

Montgomery is a brash public motivator at times. He uses the media to try to get players going, and he often works in coordinated efforts with his bosses.

In Dallas, the Stars weren’t happy with how Ben Bishop’s durability or how he approached it. Montgomery, new to the organization at the time, made public statements that the Stars might have to look at how the goalie trained.

Montgomery would often say versions of “your best players have to be your best players,” and made those other famous comments about struggling to control the Stars “culture of mediocrity.”

Never forget that when Jim Lites delivered the angry message, it was co-signed by both ownership Montgomery and Jim Nill. It was a calculated attack, if it was sloppy in delivery.

And thats’ what the Bruins have done this week, they launched an attack and it was pre-calculated, even if it was sloppy.

Sweeney knew what Neely would do, he also knew that the team president would become the bad guy. Team presidents and players don’t have to interact, they are effectively public pawns to be used at times in negotiations and Neely did his job.

Now, from an optics perspective, Sweeney gets to come in as the good cop, the softer more rational voice. Yes, the Bruins are upset, but the person that Swayman’s camp is still dealing with is less bombastic and willing to deal.

Montgomery naming Korpisalo the opening-night starter just gives a vision of a united front on this, but as a coach he gets to have it both ways — he’s tough and pushes on top players, but he’s also not the bad guy like Neely.

It’s what happened in Dallas.

Lites became the bad guy, the bombastic statement belonged to him. Nill was able to quietly deal with it and mend relationships with players and agents, and Montgomery did the same — even if his personal time in Dallas came to a quicker end for off-ice reasons.

Was it the right move? Who knows.

But it wasn’t as sloppy as some will paint it for the Bruins, they’ve now effectively committed to this $64 million deal over eight years, if Swayman doesn’t sign it, he becomes the issue that’s hurting the Bruins, and Swayman and his agent start to field calls and public pressure — at least from the organizational perspective.

The Bruins now are effectively testing Swayman’s patience and resolve in a media market where his name will come up every single day. It’s something Montgomery dreamed of in Dallas, he wanted players to be media motivated, and it simply didn’t happen because hockey wasn’t high enough on the list of topics for talk radio or TV stations.

It was always on Seguin and Benn to fix the problem, while the team president slowly stepped into the background. That’s what the Bruins have done here, this is now Swayman’s problem to fix, not theirs, and Neely can simply step back and be the bad guy while others in the organization play good cop.