Kalman: No Rest For Rask With Playoffs, Record In Reach
WILMINGTON (CBS) -- When he makes the start for the Bruins against the Washington Capitals on Wednesday, Tuukka Rask won't be the goaltender that's faced the heavier workload this season.
Barring a major change in attitude, Braden Holtby should get the start, which would be his 72nd of the season. Rask will make his 68th start, as the Bruins continue their season-long fight for a playoff spot.
Despite the career-high game total, Rask said after practice at Ristuccia Arena on Tuesday that he's feeling fine. He had an idea he could make it through a heavier schedule when last season ended, and he hasn't really altered his routine to conserve energy.
"I mean, I don't know how many games I played last year, but I felt pretty good at the end of the year and I thought, you know, I could've played 10, 15 more," said Rask, who has a 2.27 goals-against average and .924 save percentage this season. "And now we're in that situation and I don't really feel that different. So I think the biggest thing is trying to stay mentally fresh and try to avoid those highs and lows. I think that's been the biggest challenge for me this year, the biggest task this year."
The mental and physical toll on Rask has been greater, even if he says he's not feeling the effects. At this time last season, the Bruins were tuning up to be the No. 1 seed in the entire NHL. Now as they embark on their regular-season-ending three-game road trip to Washington, South Florida and Tampa, they have no idea what scenarios may play out in the standings. Looking ahead at the three games, they'd like to win them all. But less than three wins could still get them into the postseason, and there's even a chance one or two of the games will mean nothing. The Bruins' postseason fate has been hanging in the balance since November.
For now, Bruins coach Claude Julien knows that anything less than two points against the Capitals could put the Bruins in a precarious position. So the coach will continue to ride Rask.
"We're not anywhere near where we want to be right now, as far as the standings are concerned," Julien said. "He had the day off on Sunday. A very, very short and easy practice for him yesterday. So we continue to try to give him some rest here. At the same time, if you want to give him some rest and maybe be the reason that we're out of the playoffs, then we'll all have to answer for that. We need to do the right thing right now. And we need to balance things out and hopefully things will work out before the last game of the season."
Once, it appeared teams around the NHL were going to lean more on a goaltending tandem. That was certainly the case with the Bruins, who let Rask and Tim Thomas share the crease and then found more time off for Rask when Chad Johnson and Anton Khudobin were the backups. After 13 goalies around the league played 60 or more games in 2011-12, just eight played 60 or more in 2013-14, led by 65 by Kari Lehtonen. Eleven goaltenders, led by Holtby, have played 60 or more this season. Holtby, Jonathan Quick, Rask, Cory Schneider and Lehtonen have played 65 or more, with Carey Price on the cusp of reaching that total.
Quick led the Kings to a Stanley Cup championship in 2011-12 after playing 69 games in the regular season. But it remains to be seen if Rask and others will have enough left in the tank to sustain a successful playoff run.
Julien's not thinking that far ahead.
"I would tell you just from our situation that I think he's handled it well," Julien said. "When you look at the way he's played lately, he's played extremely well. It's not like we're seeing signs of fatigue on his part. And you know at the same time, sure I'd love to be able to maybe give him a little bit more rest. We all know if we were in a better situation, that would be the case. But the most important thing -- and I've said that every year -- the most important thing is you've got to make the playoffs. You can't think about winning Cups, you can't think about anything before you make the playoffs. So right now we're in a battle to make those and you have to go with your best players.
"If he was showing signs of fatigue and he was letting in some bad goals and was really sloppy, then yeah, I'd certainly have a different decision to make. But that hasn't been the case."
Rask, who has started the Bruins' past nine games and posted a .919 save percentage and 2.36 GAA in that span, sounded confident that if the Bruins make the playoffs, he'll be ready. He pointed out that he'll have a couple of days off before the start of any series, and that sometimes more rest has hindered his ability to play well in the past. Meanwhile, he has a chance to both lead the Bruins into the playoffs and tie a Bruins record for games played -- a record last set by Eddie Johnston, who played in all 70 games for the Bruins in 1963-64.
"I've got to play all three to hit the 70. I don't know," Rask said. "Obviously it's been a while since I've had, or anybody has had, this kind of workload on our team. But obviously it's been a different season from previous seasons, too. I mean obviously the Original Six team and there's a lot of history. Love to see my name up there, I guess."
The Bruins would love to see Rask come up just shy of 70 because that would mean they clinched the playoffs without needing to win all three of their remaining games.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
