BOSTON — Tuukka Rask had to wait two weeks between his first two starts of the year, and he admitted it was a little difficult to get back into a rhythm after the layoff.
"I did [feel rusty]," said Rask. "But those goals, I'm not going to give any excuses. It's obvious that if you haven't played in a couple weeks you feel rusty. I didn't feel bad. I felt good and I felt better as the game went on."
Rask would be justified if he did try to make excuses for the first two goals he surrendered in the Bruins' 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday.
The Rangers got on the board when Artem Anisimov batted in a rebound with a baseball swing at 11:34 of the first, then doubled the lead 35 seconds later when Alex Frolov was credited with a goal that bounced around in front, last hitting Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart's glove before it hopped up and over Rask.
"Well those first two goals, one’s batted midway in the air and the second one, our own defenseman off his glove bats it in," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "So how do you evaluate him? We can talk about the breakaway goal. When Tuukka’s at his best, he probably has that. But I thought, if anything, I felt he made some big saves as the game progressed we saw more of the Tuukka that we all know he can be.
"I think as far as we’re concerned, we felt good about him and his game and with a little bit of luck, I think he probably would have had his first win tonight," added Julien.
Rask finished with 27 saves on 30 shots. The one goal he would probably like back was Marc Staal's breakaway just after coming out of the box 48 seconds into the second period. The Rangers defenseman beat Rask with a move to the backhand, but no Rangers shots got past him after that as he gave the Bruins a chance to rally.
That rally didn't materialize, as the Bruins lost their second game of the year. Both losses have come with Rask in net, as he also started the opener in Prague when Boston fell to Phoenix 5-2. But the Bruins haven't lost any faith in the young netminder who led the NHL in goals-against average and save percentage last season.
"I really feel bad for him, we kind of left him out to dry both times he's been in net," said Bruins forward Milan Lucic. "We haven't had great starts and got down both times he was in net. You can't say anything bad about his game tonight. He played well for us and kept us in it. We have two great goalies here and we don't care who's in net back there, we know we're going to get a solid effort."
