Boston Bruins: How is Tuukka Rask still the team’s scapegoat?

Tuukka Rask… I did my research on him but I can tell you that by his stats he is a solid goaltender for the Boston Bruins, that is statistically better than a certain someone who I’ll talk about a little later.

One of two things just popped into your head. You will think either ‘great goalie that makes stops when his team needs him too.’ Or you will think ‘he’s an inconsistent pylon with a tendency to blow big games.’ You know which one you are and I know which one I am. So with that being said, let’s jump right in, looking at Tuukka Rask’s career with the Boston Bruins.

Tuukka Rask started his NHL/AHL career in Boston in 2007 and has had a NHL goalie role since the 2009-2010 season. His career total stats come to 255 wins, a 0.919 save percentage and a 2.46 goals against average in 457 season games played. That’s a very good stat line and is good enough to be seen as a top-tier goalie. It is… because it’s actually Sergei Bobrovsky’s career season stats.

Here are Tuukka’s actual stats; 265 wins, 0.921 save percentage and a 2.28 goals-against-average in 495 season games. Tuukka beats Bobrovsky in all major goalie stat categories yet a lot of Boston seemingly would prefer to have Bobrovsky instead.

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“But wait” I can hear you saying, “Rask is so inconsistent and let’s in soft goals all the time” well let’s see, from 2009-2019  here are his save percentages for each season respectively. 0.931%, 0.918%, 0.929%, 0.929%, 0.922%, 0.915%, 0.915%, 0.917%, 0.912%.

If your main argument is that he’s inconsistent then I don’t agree with you. As you can see he actually repeated the same save percentage the following year twice, he has regressed a little and this was his worst statistical season to date.

However I would absolutely say that the league has gotten a lot more offense based and has gone away from grit. Having highly skilled Tampa Bay, fast and young Toronto, and apparently Montreal getting themselves back on the map again, and more threats all in the same division, it makes sense to me that Tuukka has regressed a little from the beginning of his career. But…

Playoffs are the bread and butter of any hockey fan, when the best two months of the year come around everything seems electric. Every game is do or die and one person definitely knows that.

Tuukka Rask posted a whopping save percentage of 0.942% and a 1.84 goals-against-average in this last playoff run going into the Stanley Cup Final. Let that sink in for a second. A 0.942% during the time of year where no one is holding back. That stat alone should be enough to prove to everyone fans and haters alike that he can play hockey at the highest level at the best time.

In my opinion Tuukka Rask is and has always been a wall in net. Everyone has bad games and the team doesn’t click every single night. But for the vast majority of his career he has done his job and he has done it well. I think it is safe to say that our milk crate thrower is a scapegoat to a lot of fans.

If you still don’t agree let me leave you with this last little fact about Tuukka. According to Hockey Reference, Tuukka Rask stands 4th on the all-time season save percenate leader board with his 0.921. Just 0.001 less than the leader, Dominik Hasek.