He’s manned his usual spot between the pipes for 11 years now in Boston, but Tuukka Rask really hasn’t changed all that much.
Well, at least as far as appearances go.
For goalies, the best avenue to showcase a bit of their personality usually lies in their gear — with many netminders adding their own personal touches or designs to their mask or pads, often switching things up on a season-by-season basis, if not shorter.
“I played with Eddie (Belfour), so that was an easy one,” Bruce Cassidy said of memorable goalie masks. “In the past, I used to notice them more. … The guys that were a little different and more creative stood out a little more. I think now, everyone paints something. … Sometimes it seems like it’s a little personal on the back.”
The 2018-19 season has already seen plenty of new additions to the growing portfolio of unique masks — headlined by Anton Khudobin’s new Stars threads, which feature Dobby the House Elf of “Harry Potter” fame.
But for Rask, there’s no need for urgency when it comes to unveiling a new mask at the start of a new NHL campaign. By Rask’s own estimation, it’s been at least two or three years since he’s made a change to his regular mask.
“I don’t care. It’s a mask. It’s there to protect you. To me, it doesn’t really represent your personality or anything,” Rask said. “On that kind of line, I think once we have it, it’s cool to keep it, because then you’re kind of known for that if you wear it for however many years. So I don’t think my mask is that cool like some of the old ones but I still wore it many, many years and never change it.”
He added: “(Bruins equipment manager Keith Robinson) always reminds me that I have a backup ready to go, but I’m just too lazy to change it. I should probably wash it a couple times, too.”
Still, when the right opportunity presents itself, even a creature of habit like Rask has to relent when it comes to adding a new mask to his repertoire.
The 2019 Winter Classic is such an occasion, with Rask unveiling his new mask during Friday’s morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena.
The new mask, designed by assistant equipment manager Matt Falconer and painted by Jesse's Custom Design out of Wilmington, Mass., features Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish Leprechaun donning the retro B’s jersey that Boston will don for Tuesday’s Winter Classic matchup against the Blackhawks at Notre Dame Stadium.
Going along with more themes tied into the Fighting Irish, the mask features both Notre Dame’s Golden Dome and the “Play Like A Champion Today” sign that’s located in the tunnel at ND’s stadium.
Other details include the Bruins’ Spoked B logo, a boatload of gold shamrocks and the initials of Rask’s two daughters.
“
I give (Falconer) all the credit when anybody asks me. He really wanted to make one and I was just kind of like, ‘Whatever.’ And it was actually kind of neat.”
This marks the third Winter Classic Rask is set to participate in — with custom masks made for each outdoor showcase.
While he didn’t play in 2010’s Winter Classic at Fenway Park, Rask rolled out a mask featuring a bear tearing apart a Yankees jersey. For the 2016 event at Gillette Stadium, Rask’s mask paid homage to the venue with Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and Stephen Gostkowski all emblazoned on the gear.
“I like the (2016) one,” Rask said. “It came out real nice. I actually played with it. I saw Tom. The Pats were actually practicing, so Brady saw it before the practice and he said he liked it. The other guys liked it too. So I think that was the first.”
Backes talks ‘fallacy’ that comes with suspension appeals
David Backes
After delivering an illegal check to the head of Devils forward
Blake Coleman
on Thursday, Backes was handed a three-game suspension by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety — forcing him to miss the league’s annual outdoor showcase.
For Backes,
about the league’s inconsistent rulings on high hits and the subsequent punishment that comes with it, opting for an appeal seems like a lost cause — and a point of contention that could be addressed when the current C
ollective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires.
“Obviously I think you want a hockey mind making the decision. But with due process and the ability to present a case and have a standard from one incident to the next. There’s no two (cases) that are perfectly alike but you can present a case and prior history and all that stuff into getting a conclusion I think is satisfactory that clarifies rules instead of muddying them.
“Players then can adjust their game to play within the rules and not have those sort of hearings on a frequent basis. I think it’s been showing from my game adjusting this year. I think those were my seventh and eighth penalty minutes this year and normally I’m a 90 to 100 penalty minute a year guy. There’s been less pushing that boundary of where we’re offsides and that’s frustrating on my side that the result is still the result, but we live with it.”
While Backes noted that he wasn’t looking for a “momentum-changing hit” when he collided with Coleman in the closing minutes of the third period, he added he was glad Coleman immediately got back on his feet following the hit — eventually tallying an empty-net goal to seal the win for New Jersey.
"I think it's great that he's not injured," Backes said. "That's certainly not my intent, especially with my injury history, concussion-related mostly — more than I can count on my fingers. I checked with him after the game and he was fine.”
Tyler Seguin and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
Up front, both
Tyler Seguin
and
Jamie Benn
have led the way for the Stars — with the duo averaging a combined 68 goals and 156 points per season dating back to 2013.
But this season, both forwards have left plenty to be desired — and frankly, Stars CEO
Jim Lites
has had enough of it.
"They are f------ing horse-(expletive), I don’t know how else to put it,” Lites told
. “The team was ok. But Seguin and Benn were terrible. … We are a stars-driven league, and our stars aren’t getting it done. It’s embarrassing, and no one writes it. Write it!”
Pastrnak in Russia?
While the latest
CBA for the NHL is set to expire on Sept. 15, 2022, both the league and the NHLPA have the option to opt out of the deal in its eighth year — right at the start of the 2020-21 season.
CSKA Moscow, winners of 33 Russian pro hockey championships and currently atop the KHL’s Western Conference standings, has put itself in good position to benefit from another potential work stoppage in the NHL — with
tweeting that the Russian team has acquired the rights of
David Pastrnak
— along with Carolina’s
.
With discussions
set to be major points of contention already, a course already seems charted for the NHL to deal with its fourth lockout since
Gary Bettman
become commissioner back in 1993.
It looks as though players are prepping for a stoppage, with
Connor McDavid, Carey Price
and
Patrick Marleau
During the latest lockout in 2012-13 that limited the NHL to 48 regular-season games, a number of Bruins stayed fresh overseas — with
Patrice Bergeron
playing with HC Lugano in Switzerland,
Zdeno Chara
suiting up with HC Lev Praha in the KHL to name a few.
