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Underappreciated - June 22, 2020 - By Ken Campbell
AS HE APPEARED before his questioners prior to this season – seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? – he stood with his legs apart and his hands together, braced for the inevitable. It had been two months since Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins had come up short, tremendously short. Funny how when you’re playing ball hockey and you’re treating it like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final – like you always do – you never hear a kid say, “Yeah, I’m going to throw up a .750 save percentage in this game and get outplayed by that eight-year-old at the other end of the driveway.” Nope, you don’t hear that. So as Rask went through the car wash that is the NHL’s pre-season media tour, almost everyone wanted to know the same thing.
So, have you gotten over Game 7 yet? “You never get over it,” Rask said, “but (it took) a few days. You go home, start hanging out with your kids, and you realize there’s no hockey anymore. It’s just a sport.”
He’s a man of contrasts, this Tuukka Rask. The same guy who’s been known to helicopter his stick into the stands during practice and storm off the ice in a twig-snapping rage after giving up a shootout goal in the regular season brushes off one of the biggest setbacks of his career by saying it’s just a game. Perhaps it’s all about perspective.
In the moment, it looks so huge, but upon further reflection, it’s unfortunate to be sure, but not soul-crushing. No matter what Rask accomplishes over the rest of his NHL career, which includes the 2014 Vezina, he’ll likely always wear Game 7 of the 2019 Cup final, just as he will giving up two goals in 17 seconds in Game 6 of the Cup final in 2013. But they will not be a staple of his life’s wardrobe. Nor should they, because Rask has had an all-time great career, one for which more greatness could await. “That’s kind of a snippet of what he’s like day to day,” said Bruins teammate Torey Krug. “It’s not about what has just happened, it’s about what’s going to happen next. Even if he lets in a crappy goal, well, that just happened, and he’s just got to accept it, and he’s got to move on and get ready to make that next save. We see the intensity from him every time he steps on the ice, and then you get away from the rink, and he’s relaxed and calm and cool. That’s the ‘Tuukks’ that we know.”
For the better part of 15 years, the B’s have not had to worry for one minute about their goaltending. Not one. Between Tim Thomas and, for the past eight years, Rask, the Bruins have enjoyed Vezina-caliber goaltending. And when it’s all said and done with Rask, he will be remembered in the annals of the all-time great goaltenders ever to strap the pads on for the organization. And at 33, he’s not done yet.
The Bruins have done an outstanding job of load management with Rask the past two seasons, and he has responded favorably. When the NHL declared the regular season closed in late May, Rask had combined with Jaroslav Halak to win his first Jennings Trophy. Rask had played 41 games, which would have put him on pace to play 48 if the season had been played in its entirety. Will that be enough to give him the votes for the Vezina Trophy over Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck? Since the NHL started giving the Vezina to the best goalie in the NHL as voted by GMs in 1982, only twice has a goalie played fewer games in a full season and captured the Vezina, the last time being 1983-84 when Tom Barrasso of the Buffalo Sabres won after appearing in 42 games.
But among goalies who appeared in more than 30 games this season, nobody had a better save percentage than Rask. His analytics are favorable, he’s been remarkably durable and consistent, and almost every year he’s in the conversation among the best goalies in the world. “To me, he brings that competitiveness and poise you need back there,” said teammate Patrice Bergeron. “We’ve been spoiled to have him back there for so long.”
So why is Rask is so chronically underappreciated? It could be because the Bruins have long been blessed with big personalities and huge talent. And let’s face it, every team in Boston has set the success bar rather high in the past decade. Perhaps hockey fans in Boston don’t realize how good they’ve had it. But they almost certainly will if Rask leaves when his contract expires after next season. “He knows the job he has, and he’s not overwhelmed by it,” Krug said. “Anytime we get a chance to kind of step up and speak our mind, we try to do our best. At times we don’t deserve him, and we’re just lucky to have a guy like that, and that’s what has made him good for so long. He’s never once said anything.”
Asked whether it’s a challenge to tune out the critics, some of who think he should be traded, Rask said, “What else is new? That’s probably going to happen again in a month. I just happen to play goalie on a team in a city that loves its sports. I’ve lived there for 12 or 13 years now and made good friends. Wherever I go in the city, people are so supportive. That’s where I get the real feel of what the people think of your team and yourself.”
Of course, no one is ever going to say anything directly to Rask’s face, because keyboard warriors and leather-lunged fans generally wilt at that kind of confrontation. It’s pretty remarkable, though, that he has never, ever publicly lashed out at those who are his harshest critics. “Nothing fazes him,” Bergeron said. “He’s always ready for the next task, he’s always in the moment.”
HE BRINGS THAT POISE YOU NEED. WE’VE BEEN SPOILED TO HAVE HIM BACK THERE FOR SO LONG – Patrice Bergeron
Of course, no one is ever going to say anything directly to Rask’s face, because keyboard warriors and leather-lunged fans generally wilt at that kind of confrontation. It’s pretty remarkable, though, that he has never, ever publicly lashed out at those who are his harshest critics. “Nothing fazes him,” Bergeron said. “He’s always ready for the next task, he’s always in the moment.”
BOSTON BRUINS: 2020 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS?
THE BOSTON BRUINS won the Presidents’ Trophy for finishing first overall, and when you consider that they were six points ahead of the second-place St. Louis Blues and were 0-7 in shootouts this season, there was really no doubt which team was the best through the first 85 percent of the regular season.
But as we’ve seen time and again, finishing first overall hardly guarantees playoff success. Historically, teams finishing first have about a 25-percent chance of winning the Stanley Cup, which gives them better odds than any other placing but puts them in small margin compared to the rest of the field. And the Bruins know this as well as anyone. They’ve finished atop the NHL standings 13 times in their franchise history and have gone on to win the Stanley Cup only three of those times, the 1971-72 season being the most recent.
So what does that mean for this year’s version of the Bruins? Not a lot, particularly since the playing field will be even more level when the playoffs begin because conceivably everyone will be rested and healthy (and probably a little rusty). Given their makeup, where they are in their development cycle and the template they’ve established the past two seasons, there is no reason to think the Bruins do not have another deep playoff run in them. Yes, they went to the Cup final last season and lost in an excruciating seven games, but likely a four-month hiatus before the playoffs begin will mitigate all the hockey they played before the league shut down in March.
“We want to be great all year long,” said Bruins defenseman Torey Krug before the season. And it has been mission accomplished, so far. The Bruins established themselves as the best team in the league early, losing only one of their first 14 games in regulation time, and posted four winning streaks of five games or more.
They have depth of talent at every position, the co-winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy in David Pastrnak (who is one-third of the undisputed best line in hockey) and a defense and goaltending corps that made them the best defensive team in the NHL and gave them the league’s best goal differential. When you subtract the seven goals the Bruins were charged with in losing shootouts, they gave up just 167 goals in 70 games this season. The one thing that might have done them in was fatigue, and that won’t be a factor in 2020.
But that doesn’t mean the sting of blowing a 2-1 lead in the final and losing Game 7 on home ice has worn off, because it hasn’t. “It will probably always be there,” Krug said. “It’s how you manage it individually. Do you use it as motivation? Do you fall into a little lull emotionally that doesn’t allow you to move forward? These are all questions that are probably asked on an individual basis. As a team, you just have to find a way to regroup and move on.”
The Bruins have done exactly that, and all the pieces are in place. Prior to the NHL pausing, they had the second-best power play in the league and the third-best penalty kill. Depth at all positions is their most prominent calling card, with their depth at forward enhanced by the acquisitions of Nick Ritchie and Ondrej Kase from the Anaheim Ducks at the deadline.
The Bruins were one terrible effort in Game 7 away from winning the Stanley Cup last season. It would surprise no one if they put themselves in the same position in 2020 and managed to finish the job this time.