LOS ANGELES — We’ve seen this story play out before, have we not?
Just a month or so into the 2018-19 campaign, Tuukka Rask found himself in a familiar spot, drawing the ire of most of the Commonwealth after posting a 4-4-0 record and a .901 save percentage through his first eight outings this year.
By the time he took a brief leave of absence from the B’s, Rask was largely relegated to a backup role — with newcomer Jaroslav Halak keeping the club afloat with a dominant start in October (4-0-2, .947 save percentage).
Rask was in a similar quandary at the start of last season, sitting out for over a week in November 2017 after winning just three of his first 10 outings of the year while posting an unsightly .897 save percentage.
Once again, a backup goalie allowed Boston to keep on rolling despite another slow start from Rask, with Anton Khudobin going 7-0-2 with a .932 save percentage through the first two months of the season.
A few hiccups in October and November often spread doom and gloom when it comes to Rask’s viability as Boston’s go-to option in net, but the veteran is once again on track toward putting that narrative to bed for the second year in a row — due in large part to another torrid streak down the final stretch of the regular season.
The numbers from Saturday’s win over the Kings might seem rather pedestrian when it comes to Rask’s outing: 23 saves on 25 shots against a cellar-dwelling club, good for a .920 save percentage.
But, as Bruce Cassidy pointed out following the contest, the final stat line didn’t tell the whole story when it came to the play of Rask — who is now 11-0-2 in his last 14 outings, with his last loss coming all the way back on Dec. 23 against the Hurricanes.
Of those 23 stops, at least a pair turned aside what seemed like layups for the Kings on home ice — highlighted by a two-pad stack save that would make Dominik Hasek blush.
“I think that was the craziest two-pad stack save I’ve ever seen,” Jake Debrusk said. “I had a front-row view to it, it was actually my guy. I dove, and I’m looking and all of the sudden, he does the two-pad stack and saves it with his paddle. There’s a reason why he’s been a Vezina winner and he was the biggest reason why we won the game. He was holding the fort down.”
Rolling with Khudobin paid dividends last season during a year in which Rask logged his
fewest amount of games (54) since the strike-shortened 2013 campaign — with Boston’s No. 1 goalie posting a record of 31-6-3 in his last 41 appearances with a .923 save percentage.
Paying a goalie with plenty of starting experience in Halak $2.75 million a year was a move enacted by Boston’s front office in order to replicate a similar result this season — with Halak giving Cassidy and his staff the luxury of sitting Rask when needed, both during a cold skid and in order to save some in the tank for when the games
really
start to count.
With Halak already up to 30 appearances in Boston’s first 59 games of the season, Rask is once again on tap to log under 60 games for the second year in a row — and just the third time since taking over as Boston’s de-facto man in net during the 2012-13 campaign.
Rask has turned a corner and seems ready to roll come the postseason for the B’s, but a hefty amount of credit also has to be given to Halak, whose strong play gave Cassidy the option to sit Rask during his early-season struggles.
Even with a dip in production during December and January, Halak has been invaluable this season for the Bruins, with the netminder ranked sixth with a goals saved above expectation rate of 7.78 this season.
Rask will be counted on to lead the B’s through the final six weeks of the regular season and what lies beyond, but
Charlie McAvoy
made sure not to discount the lift that both goalies have provided the club all season long.
“It’s everything,” McAvoy said. “It’s everything to go into a game and be extremely confident in knowing that the two guys backstopping you are going to be your best players, and it’s been like that recently. I think that’s the reasoning for our success and it was no different tonight. Tuuks was the first start of the game, MVP.
That acrobatic one in the second on the 2-on-1 — they should put (up) a poster of that. That was something special.”
