Boston Bruins: We Question Tuukka Rask’s Commitment

Boston Bruins’ goalie Tuukka Rask made some interesting comments in a recent press conference. Now we’re questioning whether he’s truly committed.

While Tuukka Rask has performed decently in both of the Boston Bruins’ games so far, he certainly hasn’t been at his absolute best. Six goals against in two games doesn’t represent his peak performance.

Then he makes a statement after Game 2 essentially calling the two games thus far ‘like playing an exhibition game’. Granted, this mentality seemed to pay dividends for the Bruins, treating the round-robin as such but we’re into proper crunch time now.

It’s possible that Tuukka Rask has made a valid point; the atmosphere is rather lacking in an empty building and of course, there’s no hometown fans to really amp up the atmosphere in the building.

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In that sense, yes Tuukka Rask is one hundred percent correct but it’s on Rask, the professional athlete to make this into playoff hockey. He was very much a regular season Vezina candidate, it’s up to him to get his game back there.

He needs to create his own playoff mentality in his mind by ignoring the external factors. It’s not an ideal scenario but he really needs to fully commit to actually achieve playoff level performances.

Otherwise, you’d think Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy would very much be considering whether Jaroslav Halak deserves a few starts in his stead.

An interesting take online is that we’re the problem here; Tuukka Rask spoke about more than just ‘putting shots on net’ or any of the countless other hockey cliches we endlessly hear repeated in the media.

In speaking his mind he’s managed to upset people. His opinion is perfectly valid and the NHL is striving for more athlete individualism so why are we berating him for doing so.

Perhaps it’s simply the fact that we’re in the midst of a Stanley Cup Playoffs series and yet he’s making exhibition game comments. That’s the problem – his head in the wrong place right now.

He also stated that he intends to ‘go out there and just have fun’. Having fun won’t cut it with Boston Bruins fans if he continues to allow three goals per game.