Kalman: Predictably Rask Comes Up Big When Bruins Need Him Most
WILMINGTON (CBS) -- On the long list of jobs Tuukka Rask has as the No. 1 goaltender for the Bruins, near the top is stopper.
When the Bruins are in need of a huge performance to end a losing streak, they often have to lean on their puck-stopper to come up big.
You can also add fortune teller to the list. Rask, who was pulled in his previous start in the second period Tuesday in Toronto after allowing four goals on 16 shots, said Friday after practice that he would have a bounce-back game Saturday against Carolina.
Thirty-three saves and one victory later, Rask was right.
"Well maybe I meant to say we, I said me," Rask said after the Bruins beat the Hurricanes, 2-1, at TD Garden. "But you're always going to feel confident about your game. You're not going to say I'm going to have a bad game tomorrow. But I thought I played a solid 60 today, saw the puck pretty well and we defended pretty good. Although I don't think it was the most entertaining game to watch, it was pretty slow at times there, it was a good win."
All 30 No. 1 goaltenders in the NHL, and all the ones that preceded them in league history, have had the spotlight focused on them during times of team-wide struggles. Ones like Rask that get paid the GDP of a small island nation per season take even more heat when the team hits a rut like the that derailed the Bruins this week in back-to-back losses to Montreal and Toronto by a combined score of 11-2.
Never mind that Rask couldn't be blamed for the loss to the Canadiens because he didn't play. Rask was blamed for not doing everything short of locking backup Niklas Svedberg in a utility closet to get back into the crease Thursday after he was pulled in the debacle in Toronto on Tuesday.
But that's not how Rask operates. Rask is a smooth operator who seemingly never panics and always believes in his ability to keep the puck out of his net. After he allowed Jiri Tlusty's shot to beat him 7:05 into the game, Rask tightened up and didn't allow a goal the rest of the night. He was at his best during a 5-on-3 for 1:47 of the first period and in the third period, when Carolina outshot the Bruins 15-4.
Coach Claude Julien called Rask's performance "great." Anything short of great might've led to a three-game losing streak. Considering the way the Bruins had been playing, Rask had to know that he was going to be called upon to steal a victory. The defensive play took a step in the right direction, but was far from championship-caliber. You couldn't expect too much of an improvement considering Julien decided to insert turnover-prone Matt Bartkowski and juggle the Bruins' pairs, including putting Dennis Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid together as a No. 1 duo.
Rask never melts under pressure, though, because he has the right mindset.
"That's the reality every game," Rask said when asked about having to be the Bruins' stopper. "And you know I can't start thinking of it that because then you kind of might mess with your own head a little bit. So I just try to stay calm and do my job and be that calm influence on the team and help the team that way. But if I start thinking that I have to be something, a lot of times it doesn't work that way. But it was a good win today."
Rask is now 9-5-0 with a .908 save percentage and 2.56 save percentage. No one knows more that Rask's lackluster play of the first five weeks of the season has to turn around than last year's Vezina Trophy winner. Everyone knew life with Zdeno Chara (and Kevan Miller, and Torey Krug for a time, and also without David Warsofsky) was going to be an adventure. For a while, it looked like Rask was going to have it easy because the Bruins went off on the road with a four-game winning streak against teams that will probably be playing golf come late April. They got thumped by two teams that'll be in playoff contention. They returned home and squeaked past a team that's already printing up sweaters with McDavid and Eichel on the back. No one's planning a parade because the Bruins beat Carolina.
But NHL shots are NHL shots, and Rask stopped plenty of them. He was the pillar of prosperity the Bruins needed. There's no way to predict how Rask and the Bruins will fare the next week or so as the schedule gets more difficult. But one thing is certain: Rask is planning on coming up big, and history shows he'll probably be right.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
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