It's Tuukka Time again in Boston
The oft-maligned man who has been a constant in the Bruins' crease for the past decade returns from hip surgery for (maybe) one more attempt to win the Stanley Cup
Imagine being the Boston Bruins. And think about this for a minute. Basically from the advent of the salary cap era until this season, the Bruins’ front office has not had one single sleepless night worrying about its goaltending situation. Going back to the surprise emergence of Tim Thomas, goaltending had not even been a minor issue for 16 years.
And thanks to Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, it wasn’t one this season, either. And that was even before Tuukka Rask returned from having off-season surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip and decided to have another go at what he hopes will be a long playoff run. Now that Rask has signed a contract for the rest of this season, the Bruins stand to get back one of the consistently elite goaltenders in the NHL the past decade and a lot of Bruin fans get back their favorite whipping boy.
Never quite understood the hot-and-cold relationship Rask has had with the local fan base, some of whom would blame him for everything from Boston’s notorious traffic to climate change. Has Rask been perfect? No. There have been crucial times for the Bruins – Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup final and Game 7 of the 2019 Cup final come immediately to mind – when Rask has not been at his best. But do you have any idea how many GMs in the NHL would give up the keys to their executive washrooms to have the goaltending “problems” the Bruins have had for the past 15 years?
Rask is 34 years old and he’ll be 35 by the time the playoffs start. Patrice Bergeron, in the last year of his deal, is 36. Brad Marchand is 33. There’s a good chance none of them is worried too much about the outside noise at this point in their careers. Instead, they’re focused on the Bruins taking what might be their last shot at winning the Stanley Cup. The Bruins are firmly ensconced in the second wildcard spot at the moment. And they’ll likely stay there. It’s doubtful they’ll be able to catch any one of the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning or Toronto Maple Leafs in their division, and it’s just as unlikely that any of the teams currently out of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference will catch them.
If the playoffs were to start today, based on points percentage, the Bruins would face the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the playoffs. The Hurricanes would be favored to be sure, but would anyone be terribly surprised if the Bruins won that series and used it as a springboard for a long playoff run? “The biggest motivation is to play with the group I’ve played with my whole career and have another chance to win,” Rask said Wednesday morning. “We’re realistic that we’re getting older and the window is closing. Whether that’s a year or two or three years, who knows? But it’s closing and we know that.”
Bruins fans will not have to wait long to find out what Rask can bring this season. The plan is to give him the start Thursday night when the Bruins host the Philadelphia Flyers. The plan was to get him into a game or two last weekend with the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, but the Providence Bruins had their games scrubbed because of COVID. So Rask will be going in cold and there might be an adjustment period. “You’ve seen guys go down with injuries and then they get lit up for six, seven, eight goals,” Rask said. “It’s going to be a mental challenge, but then again, I’ve played enough games that I can overcome that challenge and play my best. I expect to play a great game. That’s what I expect.”
That’s what a lot of people expect. Rask joked that he wanted to play so badly this year that he would play for $250,000 and “tons of Bud Light.” The company responded with a not-so-official contract that Rask would receive “significant amounts of beer” for every shutout he posts, each time he busts out a Bud Light at a news conference and if he drinks out of the Stanley Cup.
This is a low-risk move for the Bruins. With a pro-rated salary of $1 million this season, the Bruins will be paying Rask and absorbing a cap hit of only about $537,000. If he gets hurt or falters badly, they can simply recall Swayman from the minors and go along their merry way. And if Rask performs for the Bruins the way he has for most of his career, well, the race for the Stanley Cup is wide open.