Kalman: Rask To Blame For Bruins' Game 2 Loss -- If You Ignore Offense's Awful Night
By Matt Kalman, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The great Kelly Hrudey, who played 677 regular-season NHL games in goal, wasn't going to buy the notion that Tuukka Rask didn't know what he was doing on Tyler Johnson's second-period go-ahead goal in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference second round Monday.
So Hrudey, in the second intermission on SportsNet on Monday, diagnosed the play on replay and astutely explained that Rask knew exactly what he was doing when he committed to going right just before the puck went past his left.
"[Johnson's] eyes are looking far side, Rask sees that," Hrudey said. "[Johnson's] blade cups the puck, when the blade cups the puck that means you're going far side. Then the puck starts to roll, Rask can't adjust, and the puck kind of flutters into the middle of the net."
Rask admitted after the game he made a bad read. Of course, it wasn't as much a bad read as a wrong read, because there was no way Rask could've predicted a rolling puck. He also didn't have time to wait and react with Johnson in so tight after a great pass from Brayden Point.
The Johnson goal gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead on their way to a 4-2 series-tying victory. The lead-up to Game 3 on Wednesday is sure to be filled with the usual Rask hate that seems to be ratings gold around these parts. One wrong guess on a goal by a Tampa Bay sniper should earn Rask a small chunk of the blame for the Bruins' defeat. But Rask's share should be crumbs off a piece of toast compared to the whole loaf of blame the Bruins' offense (or lack thereof) should take for the loss.
It took the Bruins 14:01 to land their first shot on net (it was their sixth attempt), even after they fell behind 1-0 at 11:47 on Yanni Gourde's power-play goal off the bottom of a diving Rask's skate blade after a cross-ice pass that wasn't shut down. Almost as if they were dared to execute another shot drought, the Bruins went the final 9:14 of the second period without a shot on net. Through two periods, they had seven 5-on-5 shots on net.
The Bruins landed just 20 shots on net total, 13 of which came on 5-on-5. They went 0-for-3 on the power play, including an empty 1:45 of 5-on-3 in the first period. And you want to blame Rask?
Sorry, this loss is on the forwards – the ones not named Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak – that took a Game 2 siesta. And it's on coach Bruce Cassidy, who did nothing to juggle lines to light a spark in a forward group that allowed Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy play 60 minutes without breaking a sweat.
Bergeron's line didn't score a goal, and it wasn't at its best (Marchand had no 5-on-5 shots on net), but it generated offense, helping to set up Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy's goals. The line Point centers (with Johnson and Ondrej Palat) held a slight edge against Bergeron's line in possession and turned that into a tad more production. Point had four points (one goal, three assists) and Palat had one goal, one assist. Each member of the line was plus-2. While Bergeron's line was engaged in its big battle, where were the rest of Boston's forwards?
David Krejci's line played the Steven Stamkos line nearly to a draw in possession and, with most of the credit going to Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy, Tampa Bay's big guns were held without a point again. Of course, if Rask doesn't make two point-blank saves on Nikita Kucherov in the third period, Kucherov's only two shots, we're probably talking less about the great job the Bruins are doing against the Lightning's top line. Rask won't get credit for those huge stops, though, considering the Johnson goal happened.
And then there was Boston's bottom six forwards. Cassidy trusts them like they're top six forwards, and most nights they play as though they deserve the trust. They were fine defensively, and Riley Nash was even 8-for-12 on faceoffs, the only Bruins center to take more than two draws and win more than he lost.
But Nash and Danton Heinen attempted just one shot each (both missed the net), and David Backes had two shots on net. Faced with an adjustment by Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper to use his fourth line of Cedric Paquette centering Ryan Callahan and Chris Kunitz as a third line, Nash's line was overpowered.
With the Bruins' fourth line also playing meekly (one Sean Kuraly shot on net to show for their efforts), Cassidy could've shuffled his bottom six, a tactic that's been effective in the past. The easy fix would've been swapping Kuraly for Nash like the coach did early in Game 1. He could've just picked the three forwards he thought were standing out among the bottom-six group and used them while shortening his bench for the third period. He didn't stop rolling Tim Schaller and Noel Acciari over the boards until nine minutes were left in the game.
The coach, however, can do just so much. The players had to match the Lightning's intensity, which was ramped up quicker in this series than Toronto increased its desperation in the first round. The players have to execute, get the puck deep if that's their role and manage the puck better in the neutral zone and inside the blue lines. The forwards have to make life uncomfortable for Vasilevskiy.
You can try to pin this one on Rask, but neither his play nor Johnson's goal put the Bruins' forwards in the witness protection program. They disappeared on their own accord. The beauty of the playoffs is they have time to re-emerge over the course of the series, but they better respond quickly because Rask and Bergeron's line are going to need help to get the Bruins past this battle of the best two teams in the East.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @MattKalman.