It was around this time last year that Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask felt pushed.
That was by his own coach, then-interim head coach Bruce Cassidy, who called him out after an undeniably subpar performance against the Lightning. From there, Rask lit the world on fire for a strong finish and the first postseason berth in three years for the B's, and admirably battled through a significant groin injury in a first-round exit.
This year, though, it appeared to be a push from a Tampa Bay forward that set Rask off.
"In the first period someone fell on my knee there, there was no penalty called – there was a penalty called, actually – and that one it felt like to me that I don't think our own D's were jumping on me, I felt like they were pushing or something so I just had to let them know I was there because it happened twice," Rask said of the incident with Conacher. "So I jumped in there and threw a couple punches and that was it.
"I just felt like they were pushing our guys into me I felt like I had to do something. The last thing you want to do is get hurt in some stupid play like that."
The reaction was as expected.
Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy made a move down to the other end in an attempt to fight Rask, but realizing that Rask listens to metal, thought better by the time he got down to the Boston blue. Rask's teammates, after aiding him and preventing this from turning into a full-on melee against the B's goaltender, were all smiles and clanging their sticks along the boards in support. The TD Garden, a building that's longed for Rask to be Tim Thomas in every possible way, got their wish and saw their star goaltender lose his mind and try to get in a fight.
And Rask, a player that you could make the case needs a little bit of outside poking and prodding to turn his game up to another level, dialed himself in to a 26-of-28 victory.
"I do, I do," Cassidy remarked when asked if he liked seeing that kind of fire and passion out of his normally reserved netminder. "It's not something you want every night because I don't – it doesn't happen every night, for obvious reasons, but yeah you want to see some fire, some urgency. He's defending his territory without being reckless, I didn't think. He just did what he had to do in that situation, calmed down and played."
Rask's teammates agreed.
"He's engaged and he's in the game," Bruins winger Brad Marchand, back to his agitating role with countless post-whistle shoves and endless jawing with the opposition on Thursday, said of Rask. "He's emotional and that's when a lot of guys play their best, when they're emotional like that. Again, he's stepping up for his teammates and reacting the way he does. You know, he had a great game so it's good to see."
"It gets guys going," said Torey Krug. "Especially some guys that sometimes don't have a pulse on the bench, it gets them engaged in the game and then all of the sudden you're standing on the bench wondering what's going on and you see one of your superstars getting going on the ice and someone you think you never see and it's fun. He stood up for himself and obviously guys will jump in if they have to and it was fun."
While I think we have a tendency to overrate Rask's energy level and where he needs to be (he's so positionally sound that he often makes it look as if he doesn't care or is not focused when he surrenders a goal), there's no doubt that a mentally charged-up Rask has been the best Rask for the Bruins. Whether it's being pushed by his coach, the opposition (Sidney Crosby's crosscheck to Rask in Game 1 of the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals remains a deathwish if there ever was one), or 2013 as a whole (Rask was on a one-year, prove-it deal), a motivated Rask has always delivered.
And it seems as if Rask has found that groove that carried the B's into the postseason last year, with three straight games surrendering two goals or fewer and stops on 90-of-95 shots over that span (a .947 save percentage), and with an added punch.
Quite literally, too.
"Hopefully I don't start [fighting] every game," Rask joked after the win. "I have to go have a couple beers now and cool off."
That works for the B's, too, so long as that cooldown doesn't make its way to the crease.
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