Bruins Notebook: Tuukka Rask gets start again in Game 2, Bruins looking to solve Carolina's aggressive PK

A five-overtime contest and a rescheduled playoff matchup might have forced Bruce Cassidy into a uncomfortable predicament when it comes to his goaltending corps, but the B's bench boss isn't going to follow through with a subsequent unorthodox gameplan for Game 2 against Carolina Thursday night. 

Even though Boston has the luxury of Jaroslav Halak as a backup option in net, the Bruins are going to roll with Tuukka Rask once again on Thursday — even if their top goalie played on Wednesday morning in Boston's Game 1 victory in double overtime.

Given Boston's suddenly packed schedule (a possible six games in nine days vs. Carolina), along with Rask's less-than-stellar track record in games with zero days of rest, the case could have made that Halak should have earned the start on Thursday night.

Rask has only appeared in games on consecutive days once since Halak signed with Boston in 2018, with Rask allowing two goals on 19 shots in a loss to the Red Wings back on Feb. 9th, 2020 on the second leg of that back-to-back stretch. In fact, the last time Rask was asked to play on zero days rest more than once in a single campaign was



during the 2016-17 season.

In those three instances, Rask went just 1-2-0 with an .877 save percentage during the second leg of those sequences.

Still, as is the case with just about every facet of this revamped postseason tournament, Cassidy added that zero days rest shouldn't be nearly as taxing to a netminder while in the bubble.

“A lot to do with it," Cassidy said of the decision to stay with Rask. "I think I said when I was asked yesterday or whatever day it was, probably three factors. How’s Tuukka feeling coming out of the game? He felt fine. Was there a lot of wear and tear to the point where recovery would require more than 24 hours or 30 hours. I don’t think so. It was pretty clean in front of him, not a lot of stretches where – demanding stretches.

"Still, it was four periods of hockey, he had to be ready on his toes the whole game. And then, yes, the timing of the two games. And the last thing as I said, back-to-back decisions are a lot to do with travel, short night sleep. We didn’t have any of those factors. We went to the rink and back here to the hotel. So obviously there’s no travel and like I said, you get a full night’s sleep. So that had a lot to do with it."

Had Halak received the starting nod on Thursday, it would have been the first time that Boston utilized more than one starting goalie in a playoff run since Jeff Hackett and Steve Shields appeared in three and two games, respectively, during Boston’s opening-round ouster against the New Jersey Devils back in 2002-03. (Anton Khudobin replaced Rask during Game 5 against Toronto back in 2018, but he did not start a playoff game.)

Of course, there still could be a chance that Halak gets a shot at starting again if this series extends beyond the four-game minimum, as Games 5 and 6 will be another back-to-back situation on Wednesday, Aug. 19 and Thursday, Aug. 20.

But, for now, Cassidy and the Bruins are comfortable staying the course with the goalie that got them here in Rask.

Breaking through on special teams: 

Boston might have outlasted Carolina in double overtime on Wednesday, but the B's could have ended things much earlier had they managed to generate much of anything on their four power-play opportunities. Boston's usually potent man advantage is now 0-for-13 since arriving in the Toronto bubble, with the club only landing three shots on goal against Petr Mrazek in 8:13 of 5v4 TOI in Game 1.

Granted, plenty of that lackluster production is the byproduct of an aggressive Carolina penalty kill, which frustrated the B's by stacking bodies at the blue line and preventing easy zone entries. When Boston was able to cross over the offensive blue line, Carolina's pressure up high often forced poor passes — headlined by the feed that Brock McGinn intercepted en route to a shorthanded goal during the second period on Wednesday.

While there's no doubting that Boston's top power-play unit is still shaking off some rust, look for the B's to simplify things a bit during 5v4 sequences on Thursday, especially when it comes to flipping the puck in deep and recovering down low — a bit of a departure from the usual passing clinics one usually sees with that unit.

"I think Carolina is aggressive, made sure – the way they form that tight diamond in the neutral zone didn’t allow us to gain entry with possession," Cassidy said. "Which is something that we try to do as much as any team in this league. Maybe the stubbornness on our part not to get pucks behind them – we have a couple of plays, we talked about even before. ... We won the game so we’ll move past it, try to make the necessary adjustments.

"I think it has hurt us the fact that you’re off for that long. Pasta misses camp. Kase misses camp on the second unit. You don’t have a lot of reps. When we got here, a couple guys needed maintenance days. Bergy, Pasta again. Now all of a sudden, you think maybe you can catch up here on the practice time and we weren’t able to do much of that either. So we’re behind on the power play. We’re going to have to simplify it and be ready for pressure tonight. Hopefully get it going again because it can be a major weapon for us."

Changes elsewhere?

With Rask back in net for Thursday night, Cassidy expects the rest of Boston's lineup to remain the same — although he did add that a few players were dinged up in Game 1 and did not participate in the club’s optional skate Thursday morning.

As such, there could be a few changes that Cassidy and his staff might need to make ahead of puck drop, although we likely won’t receive further clarity until warmups get underway around 7:25 tonight.

“We have a couple guys that are – after yesterday’s game, are getting some treatment,” Cassidy said. “Right now, we plan on – assuming everyone is healthy, to play. We will put the same lineup on the ice. If not, obviously we’ll have to make that decision. That’s what we’re looking at right now. We had an optional skate this morning, so there were some guys that didn’t go on the ice that will take warmup and we’ll go from there.”

If Boston’s lineup remains the same as Game 1, this is what to expect:

Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — Ondrej Kase
Nick Ritchie — Charlie Coyle — Anders Bjork
Joakim Nordstrom — Sean Kuraly — Chris Wagner

Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug — Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk — Jeremy Lauzon

Tuukka Rask