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Remember that scene in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when everyone’s cheering and Natalie Portman’s character is in the senate (but really -- like everything ever filmed in that entire prequel trilogy -- in a green screen) says, “So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause” and is all emotional about it? Picture that, realize that I look absolutely disgusting compared to Portman, replace “liberty” with “stupid trade rumors involving and/or promoting a trade of
Tuukka Rask” and you have how I’ve handled this entire season for the Boston Bruins.
(Also: Please do not consider a recollection of that scene as an endorsement to rewatch those movies. They are all terrible and have zero redeeming qualities, especially in a post-Episode VII world.)
By now, the stats speak for themselves with the 29-year-old Rask. 11 games, 10 wins (tied with Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price) for the most in the entire league), a .945 save percentage, a league-best three shutouts, and the NHL’s First Star of the Week for his efforts last week. Since surrendering three goals on opening night, Rask has allowed one goal or fewer in all but two of his ten appearances, and put forth a ridiculous back-to-back performance over the weekend that included 52-of-53 combined performance against the (team with noted cool goal song) Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche, including a 21-save shutout over the Avalanche on Sunday night.
There’s no other way to say it: Rask has been straight-up incredible out of the gate.
The B’s goaltenders behind him? Yeah, well, uh, sure. In five games with Rask on the bench, the Bruins are winless, and have allowed 21 goals. Anton Khudobin, who rejoined the team for practice late last week for the first since an injury sustained in an Oct. 24 practice, has gone 0-2-0 with an .849 save percentage and 4.10 goals against average in two games played. Frustration set in for Khudobin in his last appearance before the injury, too, as the 30-year-old had a media availability session in which he admitted that he was by all means not having fun and hated losing. (Fair points, I’ll admit.) Subban did better than his NHL debut in 2015, but not by much, with three goals allowed on just 13 shots against in a 30:36 outing against the Minnesota Wild. And Zane McIntyre has shown some promise in ridiculously difficult head-to-heads -- the dude’s first two NHL starts came against Price and the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist -- but he’s still 0-2-0 with 10 goals allowed on 71 shots faced.
Combined, Rask’s backup have surrendered 21 goals on just 140 shots against, an .850 save percentage, which if they were a single goalie in the NHL, would rank as the sixth-worst save percentage in the entire league --- directly above, because of course, Khudobin and Subban.
But while this blog continues to praise No. 40, let’s state the obvious and admit that Rask had a bad year in 2015-16. His .915 save percentage, which ranked 16th in the NHL among goaltenders with at least 50 games played, was the worst of his professional career. His 31 wins, tied for 11th-most in the league, were not enough to propel the Bruins into the postseason, and in fact, Rask was not even on the ice in a must-win Game No. 82. It’s that last point that people -- and when I say people, I mean people that have probably, most definitely called out of work with a sickness or suffered a stomach virus at least once in their life -- have had a hard time letting go. You, nor the ice crew, or anybody with a weak stomach, wanted Rask in net for that game last season, believe me.
But Rask
has taken their advice to simply ‘keep it down’ and applied it to his save percentage.
With a defense whose big gain has been the 19-year-old Brandon Carlo and decision to keep John-Michael Liles and buyout the remaining years on Dennis “Watch Me Score Four Goals in 15 Games with the Islanders Compared to Four Goals in My Final 143 Games with the Bruins” Seidenberg’s contract, Rask has remained the Bruins’ best line of defense in crunch time.
So, you still want to trade Rask? If you’re a bozo, sure.
In what’s become an absolutely impossible-to-win take, to believe that the Bruins could get similar production out of a goalie and save anything more than half a million than what the Bruins pay Rask per season ($7 million), is actually insane. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Marty Jones was a Bruin for a weekend and makes $3 million per season, we get it. But while you’re looking at his stats, but please take of the defensive depth chart in front of him in San Jose -- and even during his brief run with the Los Angeles Kings -- and then report back to me. Oh, and the Penguins’ Matt Murray? Yeah, the Bruins thought they were getting a player with a similar ceiling in Subban, but well, you see how that’s gone.
But if the defense remained (for the most) part unchanged, as mentioned, why is Rask performing at a worlds better pace this season? Familiarity, above all else, is the key, you’d have to think. There were numerous games last year where Rask was honest and basically said that he had no idea what the defense in front of him was trying to do. Now, it seems like Rask does a better job of Doomsday Prepping, if you will.
He understands the weaknesses within his group, and he’s adjusted accordingly.
And with a still entirely-too-shaky defense, and without a solution to the defensive woes walking through that door via a trade, Rask at $7 million has basically become a bargain for the Bruins.
Now if only the hot takes can adjust accordingly.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010 and has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013. Ty is also the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com and can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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