"I’ve got to be better," said Rask who let in five goals Friday, the most he has allowed in his young playoff career. "And I will be better next game, for sure."
But how bad was Rask in Game 5? When breaking down the goals the Flyers got by the Finnish rookie, only the Daniel Briere goal 19:06 into the opening period could be blamed on Rask. Aside from that, there isn’t much any goalie can do about the traffic and tip-in's the Flyers created throughout the game.
The way Rask’s teammates see it, they’re not here if not for Rask and if Friday was an off night for the cool and collected tender, then they are in good shape.
"He’s played so well in the regular season and now in the playoffs and if he lets in a goal that he thinks maybe he should’ve had, after that it was tips and traffic in front and really just a good job by them moving the puck and creating chances," defenseman Matt Hunwick said. "I mean, we need to stop those things from happening, not Tuukka and he is always ready to play and does his job so we need to do ours better. If that’s an off night for him, then we’ll take it."
As Hunwick sees it, Rask, who is 7-3 with a 2.39 goals-against average and .920 save percentage, has probably set such a high bar for the media and fans that when he makes mistakes they stand out more.
"You know he’s set that high bar now that mistakes probably get noticed and focused on more," Hunwick said. "I thought he played great, kept us in it and helped us get to overtime. We need to be better in front of him."
Fellow defenseman Johnny Boychuk almost broke down laughing when notified that some in the Wachovia Center press box used the term "off night" when describing Rask after Game 4.
"That wasn’t an off night," Boychuk said with a chuckle. "Those were all good goals and if that’s off, then yeah I’ll take it too. You can’t blame Tuukka on any of them. He’s stellar and he will always be good for us."
Following the team’s practice on Sunday, head coach Claude Julien was asked about Rask as well, and was very blunt in his assessment.
"We’ve got no complaints about our goaltending because it’s been real strong," Julien said. "He’s played well and when he hasn’t played to his liking, he’s stood up and said it and usually bounced back in the next game."
Julien was then asked if maybe fatigue was becoming an issue for the 23-year old, 6-foot-3, 169-pound rookie that is going through his first Stanley Cup playoff grind.
"We’ve had a lot of days where we’ve given our guys some rest and that’s the advantage we’ve had and the approach we’ve taken," Julien said. "We’re making sure that we have rest and we have enough practice time to stay sharp. We’re balancing those two things — sharpness and rest — and as long as we still those two things, we’re going to keep going that way. As far as Tuukka goes, he’s fine, he’s had rest and I don’t think that’s going to be an issue."
