Reports of Tuukka Rask's decline have been greatly exaggerated

Be it a win or loss, blowout or one-goal nail-biter, Tuukka Rask tends to not get too high or too low.

That composed and even-keel outlook has helped steel the 34-year-old netminder against the expected ups-and-downs that come with any goalie at the NHL level (and it's helped tune out the outside noise that regularly engulfs the divisive B's goalie). But that level-headed sentiment also sometimes leads to Boston's No. 1 option in net often downplaying some of his own individual accolades or feats he performs between the pipes.

Look no further than Tuesday night's 2-0 win over the Sabres, in which Rask's 32-save shutout was headlined by the 34-goalie committing grand larceny against Dylan Cozens — snatching a rifled biscuit away from open twine at the last second to keep Buffalo off the board.

Rask's athletic stop will likely make the rounds on most "Save of the Year" highlight reels for the 2021 NHL campaign. But for Rask, good fortune mattered just as much as his own ability.

"It's just half skill, half luck, I guess," Rask said. "Kind of a desperation move at that point when you can't push over that side. So just throw anything at the puck you can and hopefully it hits you. Today, it did."

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Perhaps some luck did play a factor in Rask's robbery of Cozens. But Rask's stout play since returning from a lingering upper-body injury has been far from a fluke. And it couldn't come at a better time for a Bruins team that's continuing to pick up steam ahead of another playoff push.



As intriguing as all of the discourse was when it came to the sterling play of Jeremy Swayman and a potential in-season succession from an injured Rask to the next up-and-coming goalie prospect, those (albeit far-fetched) whispers have quieted down with Rask back in the fold after missing 17 of 18 games due to injury. And while some rust was to be expected for Rask given his extended time off, such hasn't been the case — with Rask winning all three of his starts and posting a .954 save percentage (84 saves on 88 shots) during that stretch.

While some might discredit Rask's shutout showing on Tuesday due to the opponent (a dreadful Sabres team, to be fair, is a *respectable* 5-4-1 in its last 10 games), what seemed like a pedestrian 2-0 victory at KeyBank Center likely would have been much closer — and potentially more disastrous for Boston — had it not been for Rask's efforts.

Speaking postgame, Bruce Cassidy was far from pleased with his club's effort — especially in a third period where the skaters in front of Rask did little to make things easy on him, earning four separate trips to the sin bin in what ended up being a 17-shot frame for Buffalo.

“We won the game, got the 2 points,” Cassidy remarked. “At this time of the year, that’s the most important thing. But we have to understand and play to our standard — I don’t think we were there tonight. We’ve got to raise our standard internally, get back to work tomorrow so we are better prepared for Thursday."

But despite those extended shorthanded minutes and some lax coverage in and around Grade-A ice, Rask was money on high-danger scoring chances — stopping all 11 high-danger looks credited to the Sabres in the victory. Stopping that quality chances has been a positive development since Rask has returned from injury, with B's netminder posting a .952 save percentage on high-danger shots (20 saves on 21 shots) over his three-game winning streak.



(The Sabres might be the Sabres, but they still managed to generate plenty of quality looks in and around the B's net on Tuesday — with Rask serving as the great equalizer). 

"Excellent. Second-effort saves, tracked the puck well," Cassidy said of Rask. "There were some point shots there that he's able to fight his way through and find them. I think he was our best player — it goes without saying. I think we put him in some spots there in the third where we could have been a lot better in front of him and made his life a lot easier. Typically we've done that in thirds recently. Not tonight. Got away from it a bit. Some of that was the parade to the penalty box, some of it just not being dialed into playing winning hockey at the right time. So good for him. We expect him to shut the door when need be. Like I said, we don't want to put it all on him in those situations, but tonight a little more than we wanted — so just have to be better at that area the next game."

As we've stressed again and again and again on this website over the last few weeks, as fantastic as Swayman has been this season, Boston is going to go as far as Rask can take them this season — with this recent surge standing as a major step in the right direction as most of the other cogs throughout the lineup start falling into place.

Of course, given the nature of what has been a nagging injury for Rask for most of the past seven weeks, managing that ailment must be paramount for the B's and their netminder — given that all it might take is one hasty dive or stretch that could set all parties back to square one.

"Good enough to play," Rask said of his health. "It's maintaining the strength and everything else — the health — as much as possible. Kind of give it a rest when need be and not pushing it too much. Hopefully I'll be able to play many, many more months ahead. But I'm feeling good, it doesn't bother me playing. So that's a plus."

In a season in which bad luck has regularly plagued Boston by way of a comical amount of injuries and COVID postponements, perhaps some good fortune might finally fall Boston's way in net.

Because if Rask can keep at this level and remain clear of the injury bug, even a guy as reserved him shouldn't been able to hide his excitement at the chances of another promising Cup run come this summer.