Tuukka Rask is back. Well, to be exact, he’s back with the Providence Bruins for the first time since 2009. Rask signed a professional tryout agreement with Boston’s AHL affiliate on Thursday and will start their game Friday night in Providence against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. (Update: That game has since been postponed. It's unclear what the plan will be for Rask now.)
But at some point soon, the winningest goalie in Bruins history will officially be back with the big club. Meeting with the media via Zoom on Thursday, Rask said he believes he will only need one or two games in the AHL before being ready to return to Boston sometime next week.
“Physically I feel great,” Rask said. “Obviously it’s been a while since game action, so we’ll get tomorrow’s game and then we’ll see what happens after that. I’m confident it won’t be an issue.”
The 34-year-old Rask said he feels a lot better than he did last season, when his hip bothered him basically all year. Rask missed time because of it late in the regular season and underwent surgery to repair the torn labrum over the summer.
“The biggest issue for me was the catching of the joint and the pain that created. That all is gone,” Rask said. “It makes a huge difference. Every time I go in the butterfly and get up, I don’t have to think about it locking up on me again and feeling that pain. I feel great.”
Rask said he may not have needed the surgery if he was planning to retire, as the hip wasn’t really bothering him in day-to-day life. But he knew if he wanted to continue playing hockey, surgery was a necessity.
And he wanted to continue playing. Rask said he never seriously considered retiring.
“I never really thought of retiring,” he said. “Like I said, when I decided to do the surgery, that was the indication from me that I’m still trying to come back and give it a go if everything went well rehab-wise, like it did. So I never really thought of it. I was doing rehab basically every day for the last five, six months, so it’s a long process to go through and then decide not to try to come back. I never really flirted with that.”
Rask has been practicing with the Bruins for several weeks now, splitting the net with current Boston goalies Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. While Rask’s return likely means someone else will have to move -- with Swayman going down to Providence the easiest and most logical option -- he says the three of them have gotten along well.
“Obviously people from the outside are looking for controversy,” Rask said. “There’s always controversy when you play in Boston. But so far, sharing the net with Sway and Linus in practice, we get along great. It’s been good. Like I said, I just want to help out as much as I can.”
Rask reiterated what he told The Greg Hill Show in August, which is that he’s not looking for a big contract, he isn’t interested in playing for any other team, and he just wants to help the Bruins however he can. He also said that playing with longtime teammates Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand and trying to make another run with them was a big factor in his decision to return.
“A lot. A lot. That’s why I never really in my head wanted to flirt with the opportunity to go anywhere else,” Rask said. “It’s a business, like everybody knows, but for us players, we’ve had a team like the Bruins with basically a bunch of us growing up together here, that you kind of feel that brotherhood and you don’t want to leave guys on bad terms. I just wanted to try to come back and be helpful and maybe finish it up with a bunch of those guys I’ve played with my whole career.”
As far as playing beyond this season, Rask says he hasn’t given that much thought yet.
“Not really. Not at this point. I’m just trying to come back and get myself in game shape,” Rask said. “Depending on how I feel, we’ll look at that when the time comes. But I haven’t really thought of that longer than this week or next.”
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