Don't Blame Tuukka: Rask Kept The Capitals' Bruins Blowout From Getting Worse
By Matt Dolloff (@mattdolloff)
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Bruins' downfall Thursday night in D.C. began when who else but Alex Ovechkin scored a goal from his knees. He's the kind of player who buries chances from his knees.
Tuukka Rask was a tad slow to get in position to stop Ovechkin's shot, but did get there - but the puck snuck between his pad and glove to give Ovie the goal and tie the game at 1. It was a goal that Rask could have stolen with a save - but Tuukka also made plenty of actual thefts on the night and not only escaped most of the blame for his 3 goals allowed, but kept the Capitals' beating from becoming a bloodbath.
The aforementioned Ovechkin goal was the only score that Rask deserved more than a sliver of the blame for letting up, but it was the moment where many decided to slide him under their microscopes for the rest of the night and likely heap excessive blame on his shoulders no matter what happened.
A closer look at the first goal shows that Ovechkin fought off chips from Zdeno Chara, while Kevan Miller mostly just admired #8 as if he were star-struck. The pair gave Rask too much of a screen and didn't do nearly enough to clear Ovechkin or the puck from the front of the net. Rask maybe could have bailed them out on this one, but wasn't done any favors either.
The reality is, the Capitals had several more scoring chances similar to Ovechkin's and Rask did make the hero plays on them. Topping the highlight reel was his double-save on T.J. Oshie from right in front. On a Caps power play, Nicklas Backstrom worked the half-boards while Evgeny Kuznetsov found open ice down low. Chara was keeping an eye on Kuznetsov but couldn't stop the pass from Backstrom, which was then tic-tac-toe'd in front for Oshie.
That's when Rask donned his cape with a nimble kick save and a glove on the immediate rebound.
The Capitals had a few net-crashes that Rask stoned in the first two periods, including when Ovechkin machete'd through Chara and Adam McQuaid for a scoring chance down low and Justin Williams and Tom Wilson crashed the net untouched.
Rask showed he should try out for the Finnish gymnastics squad stopping Wilson's chance.
As for the other two goals Rask allowed? He would have needed Marcellus to send The Wolf to solve those problems himself. Take Brooks Laich's goal, where McQuaid and Joe Morrow let him give Rask the stinkface in front, creating yet another screen by the time they got to the net. Morrow shoved Laich over...after the goal.
I must say, not a fan of the "Wait Until After The Lamp Goes On To Play The Body" defense.
And the 5-on-3 goal by John Carlson...It was 5-on-3. It came after a horrendous penalty by Brad Marchand, who jabbed Oshie in the back of the helmet after the whistle when the Bruins were already shorthanded.
Now that we've gone over Thursday night...I'm far from a total Tuukka Rask apologist. The $7 million man has not been sharp in some of his starts this season. He's had some off nights and he is still prone to to the occasional overtly soft goal. Ideally, he intercepts a missile or two from Tyler Seguin Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars instead of letting Seguin pot a hat trick. He does deserve his share of the blame for the Bruins' struggles in their own end.
That said, the B's defense and penalty-killing has been atrocious all season. They are consistently leaving huge chunks of ice empty and losing focus on key players. The "Let Seguin Have The Entire Far Side To Himself" penalty-kill strategy was particularly poor, when Seguin rifled his second goal past Rask. You expect Rask to steal those shots from time to time and he should do it more than he has, but at the same time the lack of help in front of him has been ugly.
The reality of Thursday night is, it could have been 6-1 or 7-1 if not for some nifty, timely saves by Rask. And when reactions to obvious highlight-reel saves devolve into this kind of absurdity, Rask criticism has gone off the deep end.
Rask has the third-highest cap hit among NHL goalies, so he should be expected to play like a top-3 goalie. He has not consistently played that way. But the blame for his struggles has reached asinine levels, as evidenced by the loss to the Capitals. Rask has had a few bad games this season, but Thursday was not one of them.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read more from Matt here. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
