Boston Bruins: Jaroslav Halak must get the nod against the Panthers

It may seem like a bold call to make, given that Jaroslav Halak was on the losing end of the Boston Bruins’ last game, but he must start against the Florida Panthers.

While it may seem like the best idea to continue chopping and changing between Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak, and in fact it did work in the early going for the Boston Bruins; right now, they need some stability.

Jarsolav Halak, with his display against the Philadelphia Flyers made his pitch to steal the net for this game. Heck, if it doesn’t pay off putting him between the pipes against Florida, at worst it means you have a fresh and raring to go Tuukka against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday.

Against the Flyers, Halak was nearly able to steal a result for the Boston Bruins, performing better than any of his colleagues, in all reality. If he can capture that form in a bottle and bring it back out against a Panthers side that have, if nothing else, been scoring lately, then maybe the Bruins can turn around their recent slump.

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In neither the encounter with Montreal nor the game with Detroit did Rask inspire a ton of confidence in his ability to steal a result. It happens to the best goalies, he simply wasn’t seeing the pucks and not moving quite as nicely as he might usually do so.

Now, it’s still clear that Rask is the preferred choice of Boston Bruins head coach, Bruce Cassidy, given that Halak hasn’t started two games in a row at all this season, whereas it’s occurred on 3 separate occasions for Tuukka, but that doesn’t mean the trend has to continue.

Let’s not forget that Jaroslav Halak stole the net last season when Tuukka Rask was suffering an early-season dip in form. What’s saying he can’t do it again?

The Boston Bruins are better placed than almost any team in the league in their ability to chop and change their goaltender at will with limited negative effect.

Just look at the no-name backing up tonight’s opponent – Samuel Montembeault doesn’t strike fear into me if I read his name on the team sheet.

Maybe this is the wrong view to have, given what Jordan Binnington managed last season but reality is, the Boston Bruins are beyond well-placed with a pair of goaltenders that could easily walk on as the starting goalie on most teams around the league.

Let’s take advantage of this fact, give Tuukka Rask another night off, rely on the fact that Jaroslav Halak found his game despite the Bruins’ losing the shoot-out to the Flyers and see how the chips fall.