Jonas Gustavsson started training camp with a tryout contract. During camp and the preseason, he took on all comers to win the number two job in Boston. Gustavsson put in a solid effort for the Boston Bruins last night in Colorado, giving the B’s their first win of the season.
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“I felt pretty good,” said Gustavsson after the game. “Guys helped me a lot and other than that last goal when I lost concentration a little bit and cheated — I thought he was going to pass — other than that, I felt pretty good and the guys helped me a lot. As a team, we’ve just got to know what we did. We kept it simple and played solid defensively and that gave us a lot of scoring chances so I think it goes hand in hand — if you have a good defense, you’re going to get a lot of offense, so we’ve just got to stick with what we’re doing and we’ll be fine.”
The 30-year old Swedish goaltender ended up with a 2.00 goals against average and a .909 save percentage. Those aren’t terrible numbers for a number two goaltender. The problem for Boston right now is their number one goaltender is playing like a drunk goalie in a Dorchester beer league. Tuukka Rask currently has a 4.72 goals against average and an atrocious .846 save percentage.
I don’t know if Rask is just having a rougher start than expected, or his confidence isn’t there or it’s some bad combination of both. So, how should the Bruins handle their seven million dollar goaltender who is playing like a bad back up from the ECHL?
Puck Prose
In the past, B’s bench boss Claude Julien liked to play the hot goaltender. It was a great way to keep the Bruins competitive spirit up. Julien should keep Gustavsson in net right now. Gustavsson made more quality saves and let in less weak goals.
Tuukka Rask is an elite goaltender with a Vezina Trophy to his credit. The B’s coach (and by extension, the front office) needs to motivate Tuukka right now, and having the guy that was a total maybe two months ago taking his job should prod Rask into action. The Bruins will need him to play at Vezina winning levels this entire season, and sitting him for another game is the best way to send that message right now.