Boston Bruins: How long should we expect Tuukka Rask to be out?

The Boston Bruins assigned Tuukka Rask to their injured reserve list due to a concussion suffered on January 14th.

This is the third concussion that Tuukka Rask has suffered in his NHL career with the Boston Bruins; question is, what sort of timeline should we expect on his recovery?

The first time he went down with a concussion was back on October 18th, 2017. He returned to the net, on that occasion 10 days later on October 28th.

Second time around, he spent a little longer on the sidelines, sitting from January 19th, 2019 to January 31st, 2019; a total of 12 days. Though, of course this coincided with the NHL All-Star Weekend and thus he didn’t really miss much by way of game-time.

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In what is a somewhat freaky coincidence, Tuukka Rask again suffered a concussion aligning with the All-Star festivities, with the impact occurring during the Boston Bruins game with the Blue Jackets on January 14th, 2020.

If Tuukka Rask sticks to a similar recovery timeline that we’ve seen with previous concussions, you’d expect to see him back on the ice when we head to Winnipeg on January 31st. With his one-game suspension for skipping the All-Star Game, his return actually becomes the Minnesota Wild road game the next day.

Of course, all of this is based on what we can draw from previous concussions. Obviously, every injury is different and it’s hard to adjudge whether the blow was less or more severe or obviously what’s actually going on, given we’re not neurologists!

The hope, of course, is that the time off is purely precautionary and Tuukka Rask will be fighting fit for a return to the Boston Bruins net before those month-ending back-to-back fixtures. If not, Dan Vladar may well get a chance in the NHL; you don’t really want Jaroslav Halak going back-to-back for fear of injury to him too!

Now, while I’m all for giving the young guy a chance, it could also be a serious blow to the Boston Bruins if Tuukka Rask doesn’t end up following a similar recovery timeline to the times previous.

In fact, with Tampa breathing down our necks, it could be the difference between first and second place in the Atlantic Division.

What can we do though; there’s no point rushing back from an injury, especially one that we still don’t have a full understanding of in terms of long-term implications.

We can hope that Tuukka Rask is maximising his downtime with his family, after all that’s the reason he copped his All-Star suspension. His concussion just means he’s been home a little more on top of that rest.

Previous history is in the Boston Bruins’ favour; let’s just hope that Tuukka doesn’t rush back too fast and leave himself at further risk.