Ryan: If Tuukka Rask is your scapegoat for a Game 1 loss, your frustrations are a bit misplaced

Nature is healing in the Commonwealth.

The grass is now greener. The days are getting longer. The warm air is thawing out 15+ months of bitter, COVID-fueled chill. 

And fans are awfully pissed at Tuukka Rask in the spring months once more. 

Yes, things are indeed returning back to equilibrium. 

Of course, some of the frustrations of the Bruins' faithful broadcast through social-media outlets and late-night radio channels were certainly warranted on Saturday.

Because let’s face it, the optics of what transpired a little over four minutes into overtime down in D.C. are tough to ignore. 

Of course, Boston’s top netminder would want any OT winner back given the circumstances, but especially one scored in the manner of Nic Dowd’s Game 1 finisher — in which Dowd’s deflection struck Rask in the chest and trickled through his five-hole en route to an unsatisfying conclusion. 

"I think it was going over my head or at my head or something and then hit a stick, hit my chest and somehow ended up in the net," Rask said. "I think I probably bumped it into my own net or something. I didn't really see the replay.”

It was the type of play that predictably has had a vocal grouping of B’s fans frothing at the mouth, leading to calls for Jeremy Swayman after just 65 minutes of playoff hockey. 

But let’s take a step back and take a practical look at things here. 

We can all be pragmatic and acknowledge that Rask should have made that stop, right? We good? Ok, we’re squared away there.

But let’s not miss the forest for the trees here after Saturday’s Game 1 loss.

Rask should have been sharper in overtime, but this game shouldn’t have even needed to go into an extra period of play.

Hell, even if Boston managed to leave Capital One Arena with a one-goal victory — you wouldn’t be crazy for wondering if such a result was a tad bit underwhelming.

Because on a night in which a shorthanded Caps squad was forced to shake out the cobwebs at the end of their bench and press fourth-string goalie Craig Anderson into service, the Bruins’ big guns let Washington off the hook — and set themselves up for a frustrating conclusion.

Blame Rask all you want for that OT squeaker, but it sure seems like there are a few more guys that should stand at the front of the line as you go through your Festivus routines. 

Credit to the 39-year-old Anderson for jumping in following an injury to Vitek Vanecek and stopping 21 of the 22 shots that came his way in the win. It’s a feel-good story, no doubt. But the veteran was far from unstoppable in this one, routinely relinquishing Grade-A looks off of rebounds and sailing shots. 

Luckily for Anderson and the Caps, the Bruins opted to not force the goalie into such situations in which saves needed to be made — with Boston failing to hit the net an absurd 21 times in the loss.

Washington might have excelled when it came to packing things in down low in order to keep Anderson away from danger, but it was largely the same ol’ song and dance for Boston when it came to offensive inefficiency — far too many passengers and far too few high-danger looks from in-close. 

That’s not going to cut in when you’re already in an uphill climb against an elite netminder like Andrei Vasilevskiy. But when you fail to land those same punches against a guy in Anderson who only played a whopping four games this season? Well, that’s an awfully tough pill to swallow.

“Tonight, I just thought our offensive game was just not where it needed to be tonight, that's how I felt,” Bruce Cassidy said postgame. “I thought our power play wasn't crisp — bled into our five on five. ... At the end of the day, just not enough on the offensive side of things. I think we weren't hard enough to play against in that regard.”

Of course, if you want me to stop painting with such a broad brush and name names to put in front of Rask on the blame list, look at Boston’s big guns up front in Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand — a pair of offensive conduits who combined for one shot on goal on the night. 

Now, some fans might counter with the fact that the B’s top line can only do so much, and that an off night does happen — even to such an esteemed trio.

But as the fantastic @BruinsStats noted postgame, a lack of 5v5 scoring punch has become a bit of a concerning trend for the 63-37-88 grouping — given that they’ve only tallied four 5v5 goals in their last 199 minutes of ice time together during the playoffs. 

That’s stretching allllll the way back to the 2019 Eastern Conference Final against the Hurricanes. Not ideal, to say the least. 

“Our top guys didn’t seem to have it,” Cassidy said. “Couldn’t find ice, give Washington credit, we couldn’t escape pressure on the power play and find the open guy. I just think that a lot of those guys that had been doing a lot of scoring for us weren’t able to get to their game tonight or get the puck to cooperate or support each other well enough to generate enough offense.

“Not typical of what we’ve seen lately from that group, so hopefully Game 2 they’re a little sharper.”

Now, things shouldn’t be all doom and gloom around here.

Boston still can turn this series around in a hurry, especially if Vanecek’s status is still up in the air and Evgeny Kuznetsov remains in COVID-19 Protocols ahead of Game 2.

Even though the Bergeron line hasn’t factored into the scoresheet, one should expect at the very least a crisper game from the B’s top forwards, while the B’s were also struck with some poor luck in the form of two deflection goals against and a Tom Wilson snipe sparked thanks to a broken stick from Charlie McAvoy.

So take a deep breath, people. A frustrating loss, no doubt. But it's Game 1. Stop yelling about the goalie, especially in this case. It's good for your sanity. 

We've (hopefully) got a looooooong way to go this postseason.