Friday marks five months to the day since Tuukka Rask opted out of the NHL playoffs during the Bruins’ first-round series against Carolina. Since then, the 33-year-old Bruins goalie has consistently been the No. 1 topic of conversation in Bruins nation, as he so often is.
There was speculation about why he left, criticism of him for doing so, questions about why he didn’t return, eventual confirmation that there had been a family emergency, rumors he could be traded, debate about whether the Bruins could trust him going forward, and on and on it goes.
In Thursday night’s season-opening win over the Devils, Rask offered a reminder of the most important part of this whole equation: He’s one of the best goalies in the world, and these Bruins need him.
Rask’s stat line won’t jump out at anyone. He stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced in a 3-2 shootout win in which the Bruins outshot the Devils 37-22. That looks like the kind of game where the goalie isn’t really asked to do much.
That wasn’t the case, though. What the Devils lacked in quantity of chances, they made up for with quality, especially in the second half of the game. Breakaways, traffic in front, even collisions (hello, Miles Wood)… you name it, Rask was up to the challenge.
Late in the second period, with the Bruins holding onto a 1-0 lead that probably should have been bigger if not for terrific goaltending by MacKenzie Blackwood at the other end, Pavel Zacha had a great chance to tie the game. He stepped around a sliding Charlie McAvoy and tried to drag the puck across the front of the net and slip it in, but Rask kicked his left pad out and stoned Zacha point-blank.
The Devils did score twice in the third to send the game to overtime, but there wasn’t much Rask could’ve done about either. One was a breakaway goal and one pinballed off multiple players right in front of him before bouncing in.
Three-on-three overtime was where Rask really shined. Kyle Palmieri got a breakaway for nearly the full length of the rink, but Rask turned him away with a right pad save. Egor Sharangovich had a great look closing in from the left side, but Rask got his glove to the shot. Then Jack Hughes raced in alone in the final seconds of overtime, but Rask flashed the glove again.
Having already had plenty of breakaway practice in regulation and overtime, Rask went 3-for-3 in the shootout as the Bruins exorcised their shootout demons from last season and came away with the win.
While the Bruins really don’t want to have to ask Rask to face that many breakaways every game, they do know they’ll need Rask to bail them out at times early in the season as their younger, inexperienced defense finds its way.
Thursday night would have been a huge missed opportunity if the Bruins dropped points, but Rask made sure they didn’t.
“It’s huge. Tuukks is one of the best goalies in the league,” said Brad Marchand, who scored the shootout winner. “He’s the backbone of our team. Every great team has a great goalie. That’s what we need out of him if we want to go all the way this year. We need him to be big, and he was tonight. That’s what he does. Even when the game gets a little rough for us, he’s calm. And when you see that out of your goalie and he’s making the big save, it allows you to kind of calm down and get back on track. We had that tonight. He made the big saves at the right time and he was a big part of the win.”
Whatever debates people want to have about Rask’s playoff dependability can’t be settled on opening night or at any other point in the regular season.
His critics will say nothing matters until then, but that’s wrong. In a short season, in a loaded division, and on a team with this much turnover on defense, the Bruins may need Rask to be at his best just to make sure they make the playoffs.
This was a good reminder of what that looks like.