There has been plenty to dissect and debate since the Bruins were eliminated by the Islanders in six games last week, but the biggest talking point without question has been whether Bruce Cassidy and the Bruins made the right decision to stick with a banged-up Tuukka Rask in goal instead of going to rookie Jeremy Swayman.
The debate really heated up in the wake of Game 5, a game in which Rask didn't play his best and was ultimately pulled between the second and third periods for what Cassidy called "some maintenance." Cassidy and his staff decided to stick with Rask for Game 6, which would turn out to be a 6-2 season-ending loss.
The second-guessing picked up even more after Rask revealed on Friday that he was playing through a torn labrum in his hip that will require surgery within the next month. Rask said he had dealt with the injury pretty much all season.
Meeting with the media Monday morning for his end-of-season press conference, Cassidy went into detail on the decision to stick with Rask, saying there were daily meetings between himself, Rask, goalie coach Bob Essensa and medical personnel to assess where Rask was physically. Cassidy said he has "no regrets" about the decision or how they arrived at it.
Here is his explanation in full:
"Obviously Tuukka's acknowledged he was playing hurt. He met with us every day -- medical staff, myself, Goalie Bob -- to go through his status, particularly in the playoffs," Cassidy said. "This was an injury that occurred [earlier]. He played Game 1 with it against Washington, right through Game 6 against the Islanders. It was the same injury, same player dealing with it. We just got different results in the second round obviously. Some of that is obviously team-oriented, both in the first round and the second. You don't put everything on the goalie when you lose, just like you don't when you win.
"In that case, we were never going to run out a player who wasn't fit to play. He regularly told us he was ready to go. Incident in Game 5, after the second period, I thought he didn't look as sharp. Goalie Bob talked to him, he said he was lacking some energy. So we said, well, we'll go with Swayman in the third and then we'll sort it out for Game 6.
"He [Rask] came back the next day and said he was feeling better. Went through his routine, his maintenance, he didn't skate a lot between games, got the morning skate in, and felt ready to go. Then it comes down to me, I have to make the final call, who gives us the best chance to win. I chose Tuukka. No regrets on that. We feel he gave us the best chance to win. It didn't work out that way.
"And then some of those decisions also go through the leadership group. 'Where are you guys at with your mental psyche with the goaltending?' They were all on board with Tuukka as well. They certainly believe in Swayman, but Tuukka's been there and done it. So that's where that decision came from. At the end of the day, it didn't work out. You're always going to analyze some things that happened after the series, but that's one where we felt he gave us the best chance to win. That was the decision. He was healthy to play, had played and played well, and that was that."
Cassidy was then asked if Swayman's long layoff since his last start, which was in the regular-season finale on May 11, factored into the decision.
"Some of it had to do with that," Cassidy said. "Absolutely, the farther you go, especially for a younger guy who's not really been in that position that much, is that the best spot to put him in? Obviously if Tuukka couldn't go, that would've been the decision. It was easy for us because he was the next guy up. He had been preparing to go in if something should happen. But Tuukka was fit to go. So it did factor in a little bit, but at the end of the day, it was more about Tuukka, less about Swayman."
