A month ago, Tuukka Rask told ESPN’s Sean McDonough that he thought he could be back playing as soon as early January.
Since then, we have seen Rask practice with the Bruins at Warrior Ice Arena multiple times, whether as an emergency backup when Linus Ullmark wasn’t there or during a morning skate.
Rask still doesn’t have a contract, though, and technically remains a free agent. We know there is mutual interest in a return to the Bruins, and that still feels inevitable at some point.
But where exactly do things stand? Have there been actual contract talks yet? On Wednesday, Bruins president Cam Neely was asked about that during a Zoom call with reporters.
“I know Don and Tuukka’s agent have had some discussions. I don’t think they’ve talked contract just yet,” Neely said. “Certainly wanted to see Tuukka ramp up in practice and whatnot. Unfortunately with what’s going on with the pause here, he’s not getting NHL shots on him right now. I think that’s what he was looking for to get ramped up a little bit more these last few weeks of December and early January.”
That’s not surprising. The entire Bruins team has been off the ice since Thursday, when they lost to the New York Islanders. They didn’t practice the next day and then got shut down on Saturday as their COVID-19 situation worsened.
The earliest the Bruins could return to the ice if things go well over the next few days would be on Sunday. They are scheduled to host the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday night.
It’s possible Rask could join them for that first practice back, especially if Jeremy Swayman -- one of 10 Bruins currently in COVID protocol -- isn’t cleared to return yet. Swayman went on the COVID list on Dec. 16, so Sunday would be exactly 10 days since then.
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Some other notes from Neely’s press conference:
- Neely said that Bruins players who had a chance to make their country’s Olympic team are “disappointed” that the NHL has pulled out of the Olympics, but that everyone understands why it became necessary with the spread of COVID cases and wave of postponements around the league.
- While TD Garden has a pretty busy schedule in February -- when the NHL was supposed to be on Olympic break -- Neely said there are still “six or eight” dates available that could be used for rescheduled games.
- Neely said he has not heard anything about the Garden needing to potentially reduce capacity at some point in the near future. “I certainly hope that won’t be the case,” he said.
- Neely was asked about the possibility of not testing vaccinated, asymptomatic players as much (a change the NFL recently made and the NHL is discussing). “I think that’s one of the reasons they were pushing vaccinations, was to help obviously with any of your symptoms, or help avoid any kind of hospital visits or stays. I look at all these other businesses across the globe, whether it’s office towers or whatever, I don’t think people are testing to go to those and go into those environments. Sometimes you feel like we’re looking for trouble, we’re looking for problems when you’re asymptomatic. On the other hand, I certainly appreciate the concern for others. But like I said, not every place of business is testing to go into work.”
- One thing Neely wants to see more of from the Bruins? Ugly goals. “To be honest with you, I think we have to start thinking about scoring some ugly goals. Sometimes we get a little too fancy. We pass the puck too much and pass up opportunities to put the puck on net. We have to start driving the net a little more, in my opinion. That’s where you get those ugly goals. That’s just the way it is. You have to put pucks on net, you have to get to the net, you have to drive to the net. You have to be committed to doing that. I’d like to see that a little bit more.”
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