Slow start, puck play dooms Tuukka Rask against Habs: ‘I was horse (expletive) today’ taken at TD Garden (Bruins)

Bruins

Slow start, puck play dooms Tuukka Rask against Habs: ‘I was horse (expletive) today’

By Conor Ryan

Oct 28, 2018 • 5:30 am

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As Jaroslav Halak continues to stand on his head in net for the Boston Bruins, the window for Tuukka Rask to right the ship is getting smaller and smaller. 

Rask has not inspired much confidence to open the 2018-19 campaign, but Boston is in a tough spot, with a relatively light start to the season against clubs like Ottawa, Edmonton and Detroit setting the stage for the Bruins to rack up points early and often.

Building up a cushion will be crucial for the Black and Gold, especially before the final stretch of the regular season — including 18 games over the last five weeks against division foes in Tampa Bay (twice) and Florida (three matchups).  

In a perfect situation, the Black and Gold will roll out a two-headed monster between the pipes this winter, with both goalies capable of giving the B’s a chance to win, night in and night out.

That vision seemed to be becoming reality earlier this week, albeit with a small sample size. On Tuesday, Rask put together his best outing of the season, turning aside 38 of the 39 shots that came his way in a 4-1 victory over the Senators.

Two days later, Halak followed up Rask’s performance by posting his second shutout in five starts, recording 26 saves in a 3-0 victory over the Flyers.

But all that momentum was stunted in Saturday’s shutout loss to the Montreal Canadiens, with a sluggish showing the opening period giving the Habs all that they needed to hand Rask his third loss in six starts.

A pair of soft goals set the Bruins back before they had a chance to really get going on home ice, starting when Brendan Gallagher put Noel Acciari through a spin cycle and fired one in against Rask from a tough angle.

Despite the low-percentage shot, the puck managed to sneak past the post and around Rask for a shortside score at 9:18.




“I picked the wrong seal there and this day and age if you’re not sealing completely it’s going to go through. Unfortunately, it went through, it’s my bad,” Rask said. “It took us a few minutes after that to get going and I got to make that save, next time I’ll do a better seal.  


“I got to see it again, I felt like there was a threat for a pass to the middle.  It’s more comfortable to keep your skate on the post so you can push better, I don’t know if there was a guy or not regardless I think it’s my bad.  You think you’re there and somehow it goes through, you have to really make sure there are no gaps.”


Just 1:21 later,
Max Domi
doubled Montreal’s lead, taking advantage of an open lane down the slot and beating Rask from his knees with a shot after fanning on his original attempt.




The pair of tallies stood as the fifth time that Rask has allowed a goal within the first 11 minutes of regulation this season. Of the 17 goals Rask has allowed so far this season, seven have come in the first period.


“Well you can’t chase the game all the time,”
Bruce Cassidy
said of the start to the game. “It’s okay to be down one but you get down two and it gives the other team a lot of juice. It was a soft goal, as a team and the goaltender has to be able to get out of the first period without being too far behind. At the end of the day I don’t think we generated enough offense either, in spurts I guess, to get back into it, so you certainly need one to get back.”


All in all, it was a frustrating night for Rask, who was also whistled for a tripping penalty against
Paul Byron
in the third period. The infraction, caused as Rask handled the puck during a B’s power play, negated the man advantage during a third period in which Boston out-chanced Montreal, 16-2.  


When asked what Rask could have done to avoid the penalty, Cassidy was blunt.


Jay
Pandolfo
Kevin
Dean






It’s a long season, and Rask does have time to get back on track — similar to how he rebounded from a 3-8-2 start (.899 save percentage) last season to close out the regular season with a
31-6-3 mark and a .923 save percentage.


But given the production of Halak (3-0-2, .945 save percentage) and points that are ripe for the picking through the first month or so of the regular season, the Bruins might have to start taking a hard look at the current goalie rotation that they have in place.

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