Jaroslav Halak struggled in the Bruins' Game 2 overtime loss to the Lightning Tuesday night. He gave up four goals, including two that beat him five-hole that he probably should've had and an overtime winner that came just a few seconds after he couldn't hang onto a shot with his glove and give his team a breather.
He faced a lot of shots, too -- 39 on goal and 86 attempts overall. The 35-year-old veteran has also not played back-to-back days often in recent years. He did so just twice this season, and the last time he started games on back-to-back days was in Nov. 2018, as the second leg of both of his back-to-back appearances this season came in relief.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy has publicly entertained the idea of starting 23-year-old Dan Vladar in Game 3, and he didn't commit one way or the other in his postgame press conference Tuesday night either.
"Well if there's 80-some attempts then obviously he's got to fight to see all 80 of them, so I imagine there'll be some fatigue there," Cassidy said. "I didn't think it was a taxing night in terms of high danger chances by any means. Obviously the last goal got scrambly in front of the net, there's a breakaway, but we were pretty good otherwise. We only took two penalties I believe, so our penalty kill was solid again, so we'll see how that is tomorrow. If you ask me who my starting goalie is (Wednesday) night, I don't really know. I'll let you know (Wednesday)."
His decision should be an easy one, though. The Bruins' Game 3 starter should be Halak.
With Tuukka Rask gone, Halak is the Bruins' clear No. 1 goalie. And you don't go away from your No. 1 goalie in Game 3 of a tied second-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning just because he struggled a bit in Game 2 or because it's a back-to-back, especially when the alternative is a rookie who has never played in an NHL game.
There's a reason Halak is one of only two Bruins goalies who has played the last two seasons. There's a reason the team signed him to an extension this spring even though they have some promising young goalies in the pipeline, including Vladar.
It's because he's performed well and they trust him and they still believe he is a better option right now than the young guys.
Sure, this situation hasn't played out exactly the way you'd like. First off, you'd prefer to still have Rask. Second, you wish Halak had played better Tuesday or faced a lighter workload, either or both of which could've made this a real no-brainer.
If you had won Tuesday, maybe you'd have a better argument for giving Vladar Game 3. Even though you might not admit it publicly, you could feel like there's a little bit of a cushion with a 2-0 series lead that would allow you to rest Halak and take a chance on Vladar.
But you don't have a 2-0 series lead. It's a 1-1 series and Game 3 is now a critical swing game. This isn't the time to be giving a rookie his first taste of NHL action, no matter how highly you think of him. Not when your No. 1 has 36 games of playoff experience and the 14th-best postseason save percentage in history.
A lot of the reasons Cassidy doesn't like to play goalies on back-to-back days in the regular season don't apply here. You avoid it then because you want to make sure you're keeping your goalies fresh over the course of an 82-game regular season so they're ready for the playoffs, or because there's travel between games and maybe a poor night's sleep along with it.
There's nothing to conserve energy for now. This is it. Wednesday night is your biggest game of the season so far. And your only travel is from the arena to your hotel and back.
When Halak struggled in Game 4 of the first round, he bounced back with a strong performance in Game 5. He was very good in Game 1 of this series as well. He said after Game 2 that he feels fine.
Cassidy, goalie coach Bob Essensa and everyone else around the Bruins should trust that he will bounce back again, and that he is telling the truth about feeling good.
This is Halak's team now, so make the easy call and leave him in.
