BOSTON — A great many of the 60 players who began training camp with the Bruins earlier this month came in with something to prove. Tuukka Rask, however, was not one of them.
So, even after the 28-year-old goaltender looked a bit rusty in his preseason debut, there was not the slightest bit of concern coming from Boston dressing room.
“He was fine,” head coach Claude Julien said after Monday’s 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. “It’s his first game, so like anybody else he’s entitled to have those games. Not those games — it wasn’t a bad game on his part at all. I think he’s our No. 1 goalie, and we’re not here to evaluate him, we’re here to evaluate the others. For him, it’s to find his groove. First game, and no doubt he’ll feel even better in the next one that he plays.”
The Bruins used their first four exhibition games as a proving ground for the four goaltenders vying for a job as Rask’s backup. With the list of candidates trimmed to two after Malcolm Subban and Zane McIntyre fell victim to Sunday’s roster cuts, it came time for the 2014 Vezina Trophy winner to see some game action.
“Good to get it out of the way,” said Rask, who finished with 21 saves. “You kind of forget how tough it is out there. It doesn’t matter how much you work out or skate, it’s always different when it’s a real game and I definitely felt it. It’s good to get that first one out of the belt and to keep moving on that.”
With Rask, Jeremy Smith and Jonas Gustavsson now the only goalies remaining in Bruins camp, the former likely will see the most ice time over Boston’s final two preseason games. With his spot on the depth chart firmly secured, he instead focus solely on finding his rhythm ahead of the team’s Oct. 8 regular-season opener.
“Hopefully (it won’t take) more than two (games),” Rask said with a laugh. “It’s just a matter of getting out there, you know? You can stop the puck, but getting out there and getting the feel of the flow of the game and stuff like that. We’ll be all right.”
Some additional notes from Boston’s fifth preseason tilt:
— One question mark that remains for the Bruins is what the fourth line will look like come opening night. We saw one potential combination Monday — Joonas Kemppainen centering between Chris Kelly and Max Talbot — and the trio put forth an impressive showing.
“I think that whole line was good tonight,” Julien said. “I think for the longest of time that was probably our best line. They were generating stuff with their forecheck and creating turnovers and stuff like that. I think the three of them had some decent chemistry there tonight. I didn’t mind that line at all.”
The line also showed it could generate some offense — with Kelly in particular recording five shots on goal in just 13:41 of ice time — and the presence of the two veterans on the wings seemed to help the 27-year-old Kemppainen, whom the Bruins signed out of the Finnish Elite League this past offseason.
“Well, there’s some experience on that line, and that’s got to help,” Julien said. “You know, I thought Kells had a pretty decent game tonight and that line created chances, so that was also a positive to take out of (Monday night): That the so-called fourth line tonight was giving us some offense and some opportunities.”
— Winger Brad Marchand sat out the final 5:38 of the second period and appeared to be favoring his right leg as he left the ice. He returned for the third, however, and said after the game the injury was nothing serious.
“I had my leg kind of out,” Marchand said, “and the guys just kind of hit it, or fell on it or something, and jammed my hip. But it’s fine. It just stung a little bit.”
— Gustavsson, who backed up Rask on Monday, returned to the team over the weekend after leaving to attend the birth of his daughter. The absence forced him to miss his scheduled start against the New York Rangers last Thursday.
“We knew this coming into camp, that if the baby wasn’t born before camp, there was a big chance that I maybe I’d have to go for a day or two,” Gustavsson told reporters Monday morning, via BostonBruins.com. “So that’s something we knew. And obviously hockey’s important, but you know I feel like family always comes first. We all knew that day would come sooner or later, so it is what it is, and I’m just happy everything went good and now I can just focus on hockey.”
— Zdeno Chara skated alone Monday morning at TD Garden and remains day to day with an upper body injury, per Julien.
“We’ll see how the rest of the week goes here,” the coach told reporters, “and like anything else, we’re going to be more cautious than anything.”
— Former Bruins forward Daniel Paille on Monday was released from his tryout agreement with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
