Tuukka Rask knows he needs to turn a new leaf
After the loss, Rask was as matter-of-fact as he might be after a soon-forgotten January game in Winnipeg.
Tuukka Rask’s name is on the Stanley Cup. He’s had the perspective of seeing Boston at its sunniest and most celebratory from a perch on a duck boat. He knows what it’s like, how satisfying it can be, to be a champion in Boston.
But there’s also a twist to his story, an odd and familiar one. When Rask became a champion, it was due to the otherworldly performance of another goalie, Tim Thomas, who backstopped the Bruins in spectacular fashion to the Stanley Cup in 2011.
Despite Rask’s achievements — he’s the Bruins’ all-time leader in games played for a goalie (465) and victories (265) — he has not been the goalie on the ice in a moment when the Bruins won it all and all heaven broke loose.
It would be foolish to dwell on what’s missing from his résumé in the hours between the Bruins’ 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series at TD Garden Thursday night and Saturday’s Game 2.
But those things not yet done do cast at least a small shadow, especially on nights when the next playoff journey begins and it doesn’t quite go as planned. And you can be sure the usual sports radio vultures will be picking at his bones in between fat-loss ads on Friday.
After the loss, Rask was as matter-of-fact as he might be after a soon-forgotten January game in Winnipeg.
“One down, on to the next one,’’ he said after stopping 29 of 32 shots, with the Leafs’ final goal coming on a John Tavares empty-netter. “Obviously, you want to come out hard and win the first game.
“Didn’t win today, but on to the next one.’’
The game started hopeful enough for the Bruins.
Patrice Bergeron christened the net with the first goal of the Bruins postseason, taking a slick feed from Brad Marchand, slipping into a lane wide enough to parallel park a Zamboni, and beating Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen at 9:31 of the first for a power-play score.
But Toronto tied it on Mitch Marner’s goal at 16:44 of the first. Then he gave the Leafs the lead at 2:47 of the second, converting a penalty shot after he was taken down by Jake DeBrusk on a shorthanded breakaway.
Marner’s spectacular deke of Rask on the goal looked familiar to the goalie, not that he had a chance of stopping it after the move left him helplessly out of position.
“That was a Pasta [David Pastrnak] move,’’ said Rask. “He’s done that in practice. I put my whole weight on my right foot, and then I just couldn’t get there anymore. It was a nice move, fresh ice too, so I probably should have recognized that. But yeah, good move.’’
The Leafs’ third goal came on another breakaway, when Nazem Kadri threaded a beauty of a breakaway pass to William Nylander, who beat Rask five-hole.
Rask probably makes that save on most nights. In this instance, he thought he had.
“I got him where I wanted and I felt [the puck] hit my stick, but I guess it was a bad save selection because it went through,’’ said Rask. “I was tracking it into the corner, and then [I realized] it was behind in the net.’’
Rask wasn’t bad overall, but he could have been even better — a refrain he has heard before in the playoffs.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, while acknowledging that some of his young defensemen looked nervous, wasn’t about to put the burden of the defeat of his goalie.
“I’m not going to put any of this on Tuukka,’’ said Cassidy. “I’ll state the obvious: Yeah, we would have liked the breakaways [and] the penalty shot saved. Might be a different game.
“But their best player in my estimation [Marner] scores a goal, there’s plenty of time to come back. Right after that, we’re on a power play, [Charlie] Coyle hits a post, maybe it’s a different game, and we give up the next breakaway.
“That was on us as a team. They exposed us on those breakaways, and we gave up three in a row in the [second] period. Shame on us. I don’t want to put this on Tuukka.’’
Not many Boston athletes nowadays carry the burden of an inability to win the big one. And it’s not to say Rask can’t.
It’s just that he hasn’t yet, coming closest during the Bruins’ loss to the Blackhawks in the ’13 Final, when they blew a late lead in the clinching Game 6.
He’s still so capable, still apparently somewhere in his prime, that he should not be anything close to haunted by what he has not yet achieved.
But the first look at him this postseason was a familiar one.
He wasn’t bad, but he could have been even better.
If the Bruins are going to make it anywhere near where they hope to go, he’s going to have to be.
