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Time for Bruce Cassidy to deviate from his goalie plan |
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Through 10 games, Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak have evenly split the goalie starts with five a piece, as Halak has gotten the nod in three of the Bruins last four. Some of that was by design, some of that was not.
"This [Thursday's contest with the Flyers] was originally scheduled as Jaro’s [Halak] game," said head coach Bruce Cassidy. "He got an extra one in Vancouver, which wasn’t originally [planned], but this was, so we stuck with that."
Cassidy went on to reveal his plan between the pipes for Saturday's game against the Montreal Canadiens and Tuesday's Halloween eve battle in Carolina against the Hurricanes.
"Tuukka’s going to go Saturday, and we kind of got to – I guess Tuesday, as well – so that’s the end of the month," added Cassidy. "That was the original plan."
With all due respect Bruce, I think it's time to throw your goalie plan out the window.
When the Bruins brought Halak in this past offseason, the goal was for Halak to push Rask to be better with a more veteran and more reliable goaltender behind him. With Halak in the mix, they found themselves comfortable enough in Halak's talents to reduce Rask's workload a bit, a workload that has been heavy in Rask's last few seasons in Boston.
In no way were the Bruins bringing Halak in to compete for Rask's job as the Bruins number one goaltender. The job was, and still is Rask's to lose. But now, five Rask starts and five Halak starts in, there's indeed a goalie competition brewing.
"We told Jaro, listen if you come in and play we’re not going to limit your starts," said Cassidy. "We’ll allow the competition to evolve, and he’s done a real good job."
With Rask confirmed for Saturday, and likely for Tuesday, Cassidy is giving Rask a chance to keep things on track, allowing Cassidy to stick to their goalie rotation plan, whatever it may be.
But another shaky outing or two and it's going to be a new goalie plan brought into play for Cassidy.
With Halak showing the hot hand of late, I think sticking to the plan is the wrong move. Ride the hot hand and see where it takes you. Ideally, Halak continues to play well, Rask finds his game in the meantime, and now, no matter who is between the pipes, your chances of getting an 'A' game are very high.
As much as I would like to see Cassidy deviate from his "plan" and start Halak on Saturday, he wouldn't rule out ditching their goalie plan and indeed, ride the hot hand at some point in the near future.
"It could, absolutely. We do that at the start of the year for – we’ve done it here for years and just to work Tuukka’s starts in because he’s been the number one. But if Jaro’s able to push him and if and eventually take the job if and when that happens then we’ll look at that," said Cassidy. "We’re going to try to keep it as balanced as possible early on, and then like we said if one separates himself from the other like every other position here then we’ll allow that to evolve."
Halak was the Bruins star Thursday night. The veteran stopped all 26 Flyers shots he saw, earning his second shutout of the season. His best run of the game came midway through the second period when he was peppered with several high scoring area shots from the Flyers. Halak stood tall, stopping the flurry and keeping the Flyers off the board.
"Every time you start a game or play a game, you’re hoping to get a win," said Halak. "Obviously, if you can get a shutout that’s always more special. But, I always say, it’s a team effort. Everybody was on the same page and great work tonight."
At 3-0-2, the Bruins have points in all of Halak's five starts. Halak's stellar performance Thursday bumped his save percentage up to .945, and lowered his goals-against average to a very impressive 1.43.
As I sat and watched Halak's impressive performance, my twitter timeline was flooded with tweets about Halak taking the starting Job from Rask.
I'm not going to say we are there quite yet, but I'm not going to say we're far from it happening either.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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