Will the Boston Bruins burnout Tuukka Rask?
The Boston Bruins came up short against the Vancouver Canucks last night, losing 2-1. The game was an example on how a goaltender can steal the game for a team, as Eddie Lack made forty saves against the Black and Gold. Tuukka Rask certainly wasn’t a slouch himself stopping twenty-six of twenty-eight (.929 save percentage). The Boston Bruins had multiple opportunities to put this game away, but just couldn’t properly capitalize on those second chances.
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“Well as always, you just try to take the positives out of it,” said Rask of last night’s disappointing loss. “I guess, and learn from the bad stuff. But I don’t think there was too much bad stuff today. We played one of the better defensive games this year, I thought, as far as their quality chances go. We just couldn’t pounce on those loose pucks. There was a lot of loose pucks around the net today and we just, we were always second layer, couldn’t just capitalize. It’s a tough one.”
That loss coupled with Florida’s overtime performance last night cuts the Bruins lead down to two points. That’s an razor-thin margin for the team trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Bruins seem a little reluctant to give Niklas Svedberg a chance to help out the team as of late, and they’ve put a lot (perhaps a bit too much) on Rask to keep the B’s in the running for the post-season.
Tonight’s performance saw Tuukka Rask appearing in his eighteenth straight game. He’s now played in twenty-seven out of the last twenty-eight. While his overall numbers are still good (.919 save percentage, 2.37 goals against), they’re certainly not what they were last year (.930 save, 2.04 goals against).
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Rask is certainly still trying to be positive about how the Bruins are doing. The problem is that the B’s have been consistently inconsistent all season. “Just [with] how up and down things have been going,” offered Rask. “We never seem to catch too many breaks. Once we kind of feel on track, things have fallen apart, so it’s been really tough. We’re still in a playoff spot — that’s a positive thing. We have to make sure we keep playing hard, and good things can happen.”
The biggest problem now is that the Bruins don’t have much of a choice but to play Rask as much as possible. If the Bruins were able to keep a seven point lead over Florida, then they could have given Svedberg a few more chances. (The decision to give Malcolm Subban a baptism of fire against the St. Louis Blues still perplexes many of us.) Now, they’re going to have to burn the candle at both ends just to make the playoffs.
The Bruins have had quality assistance in goaltending before. They just chose not to keep them in Boston. First it was Anton Khudobin, then it was Chad Johnson. Now for some reason, it appears the organization has lost faith in Niklas Svedberg. (Which is a pity because during the first half of the season, Svedberg’s numbers were as good or slightly better than Rask’s.) The Bruins have to come up with some kind of plan to give Rask some kind of rest in these last twenty games. Otherwise, they’ll have killed their chances for a playoff run before it starts.