Leading up to Thursday's Game 3, one of the biggest talking points around the Bruins was Tuukka Rask's health.
It was understandable given that Rask said on The Greg Hill Show last week that his health was "not as good as I'd want it to be," that he looked a bit slow getting up at times during Game 2, and that coach Bruce Cassidy had acknowledged on Tuesday that Rask was dealing with "nagging" injuries.
In Game 3, however, Rask looked better than fine. He stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced in the Bruins' 2-1 overtime win over the Islanders, including a pair of breakaways from Anthony Beauvillier and an excellent rebound chance from Mathew Barzal in overtime.
After the game, Rask was asked about his health once again and whether the extra day off between Games 2 and 3 had helped.
"It's always good to have a little extra rest between the games, I guess, no matter if you're injured or not," Rask said. "The season has been very hectic overall. As far as my health goes, as long as I'm out there, it's good enough. That's I guess the only thing I can say. But yeah, it didn't hurt to have those two days."
After some mild criticism of Rask after Game 2 for not tracking pucks as well as usual, Cassidy had plenty of praise for Rask Thursday night.
"He was rock solid," Cassidy said. "His puck play wasn't as strong as it usually is, but that's not always on the goalie. That's on the defensemen talking to him on their way back, so I don't know if noise had something to do with it or we weren't communicating quick enough. … The goal we gave up, had a breakdown in front of our net by the D, took the wrong route.
"Looked really good in overtime, square to the shooters. Any rebounds, he was resetting. I thought on the PK, he held his ice when he had to. So a lot of good things. I thought it was a great goaltended game by their guy and our guy, and that's why you get 1-1 into overtime."
Rask is now 6-2 this postseason with a .934 save percentage and 1.93 goals-against average. Game 4 is Saturday night on Long Island.
