May 4, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) saves a shot by Toronto Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak (42) during the first period in game two of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League’s goaltender who is considered by the general managers of the NHL to be the best in the business. Today, the three finalists were announced. To the surprise of a lot of the fans and certainly his fellow Bruins, Tuukka Rask was not amongst the nominees.

Tuukka was beat out by  Sergei Bobrovsky of the Coumbus Blue Jackets,  San Jose Sharks’ Antti Niemi and five time nominee New York Rangers crease policeman  Henrik Lundqvist. As a member of Bruins Nation, I’m just as incensed as his teammates. At the beginning of the season there was a lot of concern if we in Boston could safely set our watches to ‘Tuukka Time’. Over the length of the season though,  our ‘Flying Finn’ has done his best to rest all the watches of the Nation.

Tuukka went 19-10-5 for the season, and those nineteen wins may have been the biggest reason for him not to be included this year. (He was eleventh in the league.) The rest of his stats though confirmed that he should have at least been considered. His save percentage (.929) was in the top three, his goals against average (2.00) was fifth, and his five shutout wins was the best in the NHL.

His teammates have been registering their disappointment for their lead goaltender all across the local media. “He’s been great,” said Andrew Ference. “If you look at his play alone, he’s done a great job, but if you look at the situation he’s come into, especially following Timmy’s footsteps, there was a lot of pressure on him to jump in and be that No. 1 guy that everyone knows that he’s been waiting to be. So, he came into a situation like that, and to play the way that he has, it has a couple of extra bonus points.”

“It’s the view of the GM’s, but we know how much he means in this locker room, and we know how many times he’s kept us in games.” said Dennis Seidenberg

“We just talked about it this morning and I was surprised,”  offered fellow netminder Anton Khudobin.  “He played real consistently every game and he gave us a good chance to get to the playoffs and to get the point we needed to. He kept us there and stole some games for us.”

“I can’t believe he’s not nominated,” Shawn Thornton said. “I don’t know what the reason is. It’s the same as three years ago, when he started with us. If I’m not mistaken, he had the best save percentage, the best goals against in the league and he wasn’t even a question mark for the Calder or the Vezina.”

“From the first game this year, Tuukka has been the guy to go. He’s won some games for us in the season,” commented game four hero David Krejci “He’s been great for us in the playoffs. He had 47 shots against the last game and he kept us in the game last game and the first two games as well. It’s great to have somebody back there that you can rely on. He’s been so good for us the whole year. I just hope that he’s going to keep playing the way he is.”

Even Claude Julien was a little taken aback by Rask being overlooked this year. In the end, the head coach summed up why Tuukka is such an important piece of the Bruins dynamic. “I don’t know what the reason is,” he said. “I’m just glad we have him on our team.  I know that the type of person he is, he doesn’t need the recognition.  He’s going to continue to play no matter what, but it’s unfortunate because both years he’s been our starter he’s been unbelievable.”

Apr 25, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) gets a drink of water during the first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

If any of Bruins Nation was worried about goaltending going into the post season, I think we can all breathe a little easier tonight. Tonight’s performance of the Tuukka Rask show had the Black and Gold goalie stopping thirty shots on goal by some of the league’s leading scorers. They weren’t just saves. Some were timely, a few were acrobatic, and the rest were worthy of Vezina consideration.(The 2-on-1 with Steven Stamkos and Martin St Louis being the big one.)Tonight’s shutout was his fifth of the season, and the sixteenth of his career.

Tuukka has very likely guaranteed himself a slot as a Vezina finalist this year. His five shutout wins places him atop all other goalies in the NHL. Rask is now fourth in goals against (1.97), and second in save percentage (.930) That second place standing is behind Craig Anderson of the Ottawa Senators. With Anderson playing eleven fewer games than Tuukka, it does give Rask more credibility(at least it should) to the judging committee.

The first period showed the Bruins off to a lackluster start. The team spent the majority of their time on the defensive trapped in their zone. The Lightning had gotten three shots on Tuukka without a single one in response by Boston. Then faster than you can say “8 miles to the gallon while littering on the highway.”, our own eco-warrior Andrew Ference proceeds to put a serious beat down on former teammate and Bruin, Benoit Pouliot. The team and the fans needed that spark, and Ference  went out there and grabbed it. For the rest of the period, it looked like the Bruins were out to bottle up the Lightning.

The first score of the night game from an outstanding pass from the Little Ball of Hate, Brad Marchand. He zipped into a 1 on 3 situation, saw how the defense was positioning itself, and sent an excellent pass out to Dennis Seidenberg. The German Hammer vaulted one pass Bruins and Lightning alike. I don’t think Anders Lindback saw that black missile shoot by him. That gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 4:22 in the second period.

The Bruins kept the pressure up in the second. The Merlot Men once again came up big for Boston. Shawn Thornton forced a turnover at the Lightning blue line, and the puck ended up with the puck coming into the offensive zone on the left side. Gregory Campbell took the puck and made a great cross the ice pass to Daniel Paille. Paille fired off a one timer that got through Lindback and put the Bruins up by a pair.

Welcome back Milan Lucic! I’m not sure where you’ve been the majority of this season, but it was sure nice to see the chirping, checking, and brawling you on the ice tonight. Lucic got in four hits, and decided to go toe to toe with the Lightning defenseman Keith Aulie. Aulie is a monster at 6’6″ and 230 pounds, but Lucic proceeded to take apart the bigger guy with ease, finishing the fight by dumping Aurie to the ice. The Ference fight got the team and the crowd on its feet, and the Lucic fight kept them there.

The win gives the Bruins(28-13-5) sixty one points, and they’re still tied with the Montreal Canadiens. The blanc, blue, et rouge beat the Winnipeg Jets tonight. Not only does this knock out the resurging Jets from playoff contention, it means we’ve got to put up with Montreal on our coattails for at least one more game. Our next game will likely be a preview of the second round of the playoffs as the battling Bruins will be in Washington to take on Alex Ovechkin

Apr 25, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St. Louis (26) and Boston Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg (44) battle for the puck during the first period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

It was John “Hannibal” Smith who once said “I love it when a plan comes together”, and that is certainly what happened at TD Garden tonight. The Tampa Bay Lightning might be out of the playoffs but they certainly have been riding a goal scoring streak as of late under the support of Steven Stamkos and the ageless Martin St. Louis. But neither of them could penetrate the stone wall that is Tuukka Rask.

The Boston Bruins are within a game of wrapping up the Northeast Division and with the way they played tonight, it seems like they can finally do it and go into the post season the Bruins team they need to be. Tampa isn’t an easy team to face, especially when their top line has two dangerous goal scorers; but the Bruins were able to solve them and play Bruins hockey. This was an important game, and everyone came to play. It might have not been a blow out win, but this 2-0 shutout showed us a lot about how this Bruins team will evolve in it’s last 2 games of the regular season.

The first period was certainly not very east nor west in terms of play on the ice. Things looked like they might get off sloppy for the Bruins, and then Andrew Ference dropped the gloves with former teammate Benoit Poliout. Ference’s fight sparked a special kind of fire under the Bruins, and they fueled those flames through the end of the first and into the beginning of the second period. Brad Marchand has certainly been learning something from Jagr, and it’s puck handling. Marchand already had a great puck handling skill but ever since Jagr has arrived in Boston, it’s gotten much better and much more lethal. Marchand made a terrific passing play to Dennis Seidenberg who netted his 3rd goal of the season and put the Bruins up 1-0 in the second. Daniel Paille followed 13 minutes later with his 10th of the season off of a terrific saucer pass from Campbell  and put the Bruins up 2-0. Milan Lucic engaged in the second fight of the game squaring up against Keith Aulie, and speaking of Lucic; this game was all him. Lucic’s physical play and rough and tough attitude showed through tonight as he created a lot of turn overs and offensive chances for the Bruins. He may have gone pointless in this game, but his presence was felt.

The game’s first star Tuukka Rask stopped 30 shots by the Lightning (with 26 shots 5-on-5 and 4 on the Penalty Kill) and was playing his best game all season. He had two highway robbery saves on Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis and was a force to be reckoned with. On the flip side, Andres Lindback surrendered 2 goals but still made 24 saves and still managed to post a .900+ SV% by the end of the game. Rask’s team carrying play helped out when the defence got a little sloppy and it seems like he is ready to take on the roll of the playoff savior if he has to be.

The powerplay for the Bruins was one chance and again the B’s showed solid puck movement. They might not have connected for a goal but the gears are certainly turning with Brad Marchand, Jarmoir Jagr, and Carl Soderberg being the main cogs to the powerplay machine. The PK killed 4 chances and while there weren’t many short handed bids for the Bruins, it didn’t really matter as they defensively solved the strong powerplay force of the Lightning.

The Bruins will head to Washington where they will hopefully put away the Northeast Division and get their own revenge for the Game 7 OT upset in 2012. The clock has almost run down on the regular season, but the Bruins have the batteries to keep it going for the post-season.