Tuukka Rask’s return to the Bruins ultimately lasted just four games. News broke Tuesday night, courtesy of The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa, that Rask is not expected to continue his comeback after suffering a setback that has now kept him off the ice for two weeks. He could officially announce his retirement this week.
There was certainly some first-guessing of the Bruins’ decision to bring Rask back. There will be even more second-guessing now that the experiment has already come to an end.
There shouldn’t be. The Bruins giving Rask a chance made all the sense in the world, even if things ending like this was always a possibility.
It was a low-risk, potentially high-reward move that any playoff team with any question whatsoever in goal would have been foolish to pass up.
And make no mistake: The Bruins’ goaltending situation was not and is not without questions. Neither Linus Ullmark nor Jeremy Swayman has ever started an NHL playoff game. Rask has started 104 and has the ninth-best postseason save percentage in history.
Ullmark and Swayman have both been solid overall this season, but neither has really been great. While their .913 and .914 overall save percentages, respectively, are better than league average, some of their underlying metrics are not.
Both rate negatively in Evolving-Hockey’s goals saved above expected -- Swayman at minus-1.06 entering Tuesday night, Ullmark at minus-5.14. That had them 28th and 35th, respectively, among the 54 goalies who have played the most minutes this season. Ullmark also ranks 44th in 5-on-5 save percentage and 52nd in high-danger save percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick. Swayman rates a little better in those two categories (26th in 5-on-5, 18th in high-danger). Even during his 9-1-1 run since Jan. 1, Ullmark has just a .902 save percentage.
Swayman made his first NHL start in a month on Tuesday, but it did not go especially well. He gave up three goals on 24 shots in a 4-2 loss to the Penguins. Swayman had a chance on all three goals he allowed, and Danton Heinen’s second goal of the game was definitely soft. After the game, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said goaltending was the difference in the game, which is never really what you want to hear when you’re on the losing end of that equation.
“You’re not gonna play a perfect game. Their guy made more stops than our guy did,” Cassidy said. “I think that ends up being, to me, the bigger story of the game.”
None of this is to stay that an Ullmark-Swayman tandem isn’t good enough or isn’t something the Bruins can win with. It’s just a reminder that there was -- and still is -- room for improvement.
That improvement can certainly come from Ullmark and Swayman themselves, but the Bruins also believed there was a chance it might come from Rask. The last time Rask was healthy was the 2019-20 season, and he finished second in Vezina Trophy voting that year. He ranked third in goals saved above expected and third in high-danger save percentage.
Rask and the Bruins both honestly believed he was on the road to full health. Rask talked about how great he felt and how nice it was to no longer be worried about hip pain every time he got up. He was excited to try to make one more run with good friends Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. That was why he went through the surgery and all the rehab.
Getting back to 2019-20 form once Rask got enough games under his belt didn’t seem to be out of the question, and the Bruins had a chance to get that for just a $1 million cap hit. Again, what team in their situation would pass on that?
Sure, sending Swayman down to Providence wasn’t ideal. It also wasn’t this massive developmental road block that some tried to make it out to be. The most important thing for the 23-year-old at this point in his career is just to play and keep improving, and he can and did do that in Providence.
If he played well and Rask and/or Ullmark struggled, Swayman was going to be back, just like he is now. His stint in Providence wound up being less than a month. No, it didn’t stunt his growth.
Should Rask have played a couple games in Providence as originally planned? Yeah, probably. But it only would've been for a game or two, and this setback could've happened with or without an AHL stint.
As for Ullmark, this is a big reason why the Bruins signed him. Rask was always a question mark. The Bruins wanted some certainty at the position so that they wouldn’t end up in a situation where their entire season hinged on Rask returning and playing at a top level.
A healthy Rask could have made the Bruins’ season. That made it a chance worth taking. Rask now having to call off this comeback shouldn’t break their season, though. And that’s why it wasn’t some big mistake. It was a low-risk move that didn’t work out, and now the Bruins go back to how things were a month ago.
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