Boston Bruins Tuukka Rask Will Play Less Games This Season
By Jay Peterson
There are many who believe that Tuukka Rask, with his 70 games played, was overused last year by the Boston Bruins, in the 2014-15 season. If the Bruins did make the playoffs last year, chances are that Rask would be very fatigued, very quickly, which would have made for an inevitable first, or second, round exit.
More from Bruins News
- Bruins release Prospects Challenge roster, schedule Tuesday
- Bruins bringing back familiar forward on tryout contract
- The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
- NHL Network lists Ullmark as sixth-best goalie in the league
- The Lasting Legacy of David Krejci
Now, it is important not to look too far ahead, since the goal this year is to, at the very least, make the playoffs. However, looking at the Boston Bruins schedule this year, it looks like Claude Julien will be forced to play Rask less than he did the year before. Regardless of who receives the role as the backup goaltender for the Boston Bruins, it is of utmost importance that Tuukka Rask gets his rest and doesn’t have too many games at once during the 2015-16 season. Having said that, I looked through the Bruins schedule and found all of the back-to-games and busiest cluster of games. After analyzing these areas of the schedule, I believe that Rask should sit out for at least 18 games, if he wants to have a comfortable season.
Jan 7, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) on the ice for warm-ups before playing the Pittsburgh Penguins at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Bruins won 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
To start, there are 8 back-to-back scenarios throughout the season that are alone and not linked to any busy cluster of games (schedule details found on the Boston Bruins website).
There have been times where a starting goalie has played both back-to-back games, but for argument’s sake, we will assume that Rask will be nice and split these back-to-back games each time. Next are the busy cluster of games that occur in a short amount of days. From November 17th to November 27th, the Bruins play 6 games. That’s a game every other day. Within this cluster of games, I see the backup playing in at least one game. From April 1st to April 9th, the last 5 games of the year are played, again every other day. So, the backup will most likely sneak a game in their as well. From December 12th to December 22nd, there are 6 games played, including a back-to-back. Chances are Rask will take 2 games off during this cluster. Then we come to the toughest time of the Boston Bruins season, February and March.
This is not going to be an easy time for Rask, no matter how you spin it. From February 9th to March 11th, so in just over a month, the Bruins play 18 games, including 2 back-to-backs! Typically Rask would easily play 2 of 3 games in any other scenario during the season, so, under that logic, the backup would play 6 games during this 18 game cluster, leaving 12 games for Rask.
Live Feed
Puck Prose
So, under these circumstances, the backup goaltender is set to play 18 games this season. Obviously, things like injuries, the flu, births or deaths in the family, and other variables could factor into when Tuukka Rask plays and when he does not, but by factoring in the schedule alone, Rask would be in a position to play 64 games this year. Goalies that were within that total last year were Carey Price (66 games), Kari Lehtonen (65), Pekka Rinne (64), Marc-Andre Fleury (64), Ben Bishop (62), Mike Smith (62), Antti Niemi (61) and Roberto Luongno (61). This seems to be the appropriate amount of games for most of the league’s top starting goaltenders who did not get hurt during the season (stats found on nhl.com).
This amount of games would be perfect for both Rask and the backups, as Julien would not want to give his backups anymore than 20 games, given their lack of NHL experience. With such an unknown in net when Tuukka Rask is not playing, it is of vital importance that, when he is playing, Rask is at his best. The only way to keep Tuukka Rask at his best is to give him the appropriate amount of time to rest, by respecting the schedule and anticipating the busy parts of the year. Want access to all things Boston Bruins? Follow me on Twitter @29Bruins.