Bruce Cassidy and the Bruins made a tough decision Monday night. Not for what it meant at the moment, but what it could mean moving forward.
The Bruins pulled starting goalie Tuukka Rask after two periods in an eventual 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders. The home loss puts the Bruins on the verge of elimination as the Stanley Cup playoffs second-round series shifts back to Long Island for a do-or-die Game 6 for the B’s.
Cassidy said Tuesday he’s unsure whether Rask will be able to play Wednesday night. The 2014 Vezina Trophy winner missed time this season due to injuries, and both the team and Rask have been forthcoming about the fact he’s not 100 percent right now.
Boston’s head coach also made sure to say the Bruins are happy with Rask’s performance on the ice.
“We try to give you as much information as possible. We feel that’s the right way to do it, but there are certain things that stay in house here,” Cassidy said when asked about the decision-making process when it came to pulling Rask and inserting Jeremy Swayman for the third period in Game 5.
“We factored in a number of different things. First of all, with Tuukka, we’re happy with his performance. (Monday), he’s been better than he was (Monday), but we weren’t good enough in front of him as well. Let’s face it: You need your goaltender to bail you out when you’re not, and it didn’t happen (Monday). It has happened in other games, it happened in the previous series. We’re not dissatisfied with Tuukka’s play.”
Cassidy again confirmed Rask’s health issues but didn’t go into specifics. He did, however, point out the volume of games the No. 1 goaltender has had to play since the playoffs began, which obviously is a pretty solid increase from the regular season. That factored into the decision, too.
So, with the Bruins trailing 4-2 going into the third, it’s almost like there was nothing to lose, especially if it got Rask some rest.
“There are a lot of things that go into it, where we are in the game, and just sometimes you also make a decision — not for a spark — but OK, considering all these things, is this the time?” Cassidy continued. “There’s a number of that we go (over) between periods, and we go discuss it with the player. That’s that. We made the decision.”
Regardless of who’s in net Wednesday night with the season on the line, Cassidy needs more from everyone else outside the crease, too.
“We’ve gotta be better in front of Tuukka defensively,” Cassidy said. “We’ve gotta tighten up on the penalty kill, we’ve gotta clean some of those areas up. We can’t be giving up those point-blank chances, and when we do, we need him to make some saves for us. That’s the formula, and that’s always been the formula, especially in the playoffs. Every team needs it, you need some key saves. You’re not going to be perfect, but you also have to be good in front of your goaltender, so we have to fix those two things.”
It sure sounds like the Bruins still are planning to start Rask in Game 6. But cleaning up their game sure would help Swayman, too, if the rookie needs to make the start instead.
