Haggs: Keeping Rask Out vs. Canadiens 'Weak Way' Of Doing Things
BOSTON (CBS) -- The struggles of Tuukka Rask against the Montreal Canadiens are well documented.
Rask is just 3-11-3 in his career against Boston's foes to the north, sporting a 2.80 goals against average and a .902 save percentage. During last year's playoffs, Montreal beat Tuukka 19 times over their seven game series victory.
But should the Bruins be protecting their top goaltender from their fiercest rival? Rask was not between the pipes for Thursday night's 5-1 loss to the Canadiens in Montreal, Boston's second blowout loss in as many nights. Bruins head coach Claude Julien didn't want to elaborate on his decision to sit Rask before or after the loss.
CSNNE's Joe Haggerty joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Friday morning to discuss Julien's choice to sit Rask. Haggs isn't a fan of Boston protecting one of their highest paid players from a team they'll likely see at some point if they want to reach their ultimate goal of a Stanley Cup title.
"Tuukka Rask is your Vezina trophy winning goaltender and you're No. 1; he's the guy who has to beat the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs if you want to advance. You have to get him having success, winning against Montreal during the regular season in order to have that confidence that they can do it in the playoffs," argued Haggerty. "Shying away from him in that game, or protecting him against Montreal -- whatever you want to call it -- it's a weak way of doing it. It's a soft way of going about trying to make a statement against the Habs. They're done with games up in Montreal now, so Tuukka doesn't get a chance to try to beat them and get some confidence going into the playoffs.
"I don't like the statement you're making when you go away from your No. 1 against your rivals and the team who beat you in the playoffs last season," he said.
The Bruins have had to overcome a lot so far just 18 games into the season, with captain Zdeno Chara and top-line center David Krejci both missing significant time with injuries. With 20 points they currently sit near the bottom of the playoff barrel, and though things seem a little down following their last two games, Haggerty still thinks they're in a decent position if they can tread water until Chara and Krejci get healthy.
"As long as they beat some of the cupcakes like they did in that five-game win streak, and sort of take care of business against the lesser teams [they should be OK.]. Yes, they'll have games where they lose and lose pretty badly because they have a young defense and a lot of parts missing," said Haggs. "They're missing some of the heaviness, strength and size, so you're going to see games where they're just not in it. The last couple of nights were great examples of it."
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