One more loss for Bruins, one more day to wait for Rask update
Rask/By S. Bradley
After they went out and lost their second in a row, this time on the road to the New York Rangers, 4-3, the Bruins announced this afternoon that they wouldn’t have an update on goaltender Tuukka Rask’s health situation until Monday.
Via Twitter, the Bruins said that a full evaluation of Rask’s injury would be completed by then.
Rask suffered what was apparently a left-leg injury Saturday in Boston’s 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders at the TD Garden. He was helped from the ice by two teammates and wasn’t putting any weight on his left leg. He was seen leaving the TD Garden on crutches.
Without Rask, Tim Thomas will have to hold down the fort. He got that task off to a troubling start today in the loss to the Rangers. Thomas allowed four goals on just 17 shots faced. The biggest goal of the day was the game-winner by Derek Stepan, who beat Thomas from the top of the left circle with a wrist shot and very little traffic in front of the Boston goal. If the Bruins are going to survive the Rask absence, Thomas has to be better.
Thomas’Â subpar performance and Boston’s inability to prevent the Rangers from taking a 2-0 lead just 6:15 into the game ruined Jordan Caron’s first NHL two-point game (1 goal, 1 assist) and an overall solid four-line showing by the Bruins’ forwards.
Thomas hasn’t made more than three starts in a row yet this season. He last started four in a row last January & February. Even if the Bruins get a best-case diagnosis on Rask, you have to figure last year’s Vezina Trophy winner will be asked to exceed that workload in the weeks ahead. And the Bruins have to hope that the 37-year-old can begin to channel the goaltender he was in starting 25 straight games last spring.
I hate losing to the Rangers so many times in the regular season. I want to see this matchup in the playoffs and hopefully the Bruins will prevail.
They are amazingly playing just under .500 hockey even with the injuries. Makes it even more frustrating.
I’ve been a supporter of Caron since training camp. I liked him because I thought he was more physical than Pouliot. The one thing from yesterday’s game and the game against Winnipeg on the last road trip, is that he needs to shoot more. In the past I think he’s been too worried about making the cute pass, but he needs to let it rip more often.
The only thing that’s getting me a little on edge is the injuries… I really hope this doesn’t continue. /fingers crossed. Slumps can be overcome, injuries to a point can’t. Go B’s!
Agreed John. The Bruins mopped the floor with them yesterday and still lost. The playoffs are a different animal.
Terry, I have to disagree. I don’t think the Rangers look like last year’s Bruins. I think they look more like the Bruins of 3 years ago when they ran away with the East and then got bounced by Carolina in the 2nd round. Everything has been bouncing the Rangers way all season. The second goal of the game yesterday kind of epitomizes it.
Well, the positivity on here is nice change. I have to admit I am starting worry about this team though. Hopefully they finish the season moving upward. It was nice to see the Sens lose last night. At least they aren’t gaining any ground.
Oddly enough, I’m not worried. After the 6 minutes of excrement that they produced in the first, they proved that if they play their game they can dominate one of, if not the best team in the league. Then, due to playing back-to-back matinee games, their legs died on them. An excuse yes, but a rather valid one, IMO.
I’m not worried about Thomas just yet. As we all know that he gets better with a heavy work load. With that said, by the end of this week, which again features back-to-back matinee games (nice one there schedule makers), if he’s still letting in year two Raycroft-esque goals, I’ll change my tone.
If this team just consistently plays 60 minutes of their game; moving their feet, but most importantly, finishing their checks, they’ll be fine. We saw if for 45 minutes yesterday and the results w/i that 45 minutes were evident.
B16 I agree with everything you said buts it’s still a loss and back to back. I thought we had great jump and I really enjoyed this game vs. Sat for sure. Fact is for months we have been letting cream puffs in and offense wise just not getting the numbers like nov, dec. I just think that when a goalie is hot and we had that last year you can go along way just like we did last year. This year well the stats are starting to show us something that ain’t to good.
Terry
I think the Bruins played well. Thomas didn’t have his A game today, but the new line of Krecji, Lucic, and Seguin looked good. Caron finally looked like he belonged. Boychuk had one of his best games. I liked what McDermid did on some of his shifts. The B’s out-played the Rangers today. We play like we did today against the Rangers, we will win 7 of 10.
They started really sloppy, especially Chara. But then they dominated basically the rest of the game. I thought Caron played his best game today. (granted I live in FL so I don’t get to see every game). And the game winning goal was a perfect shot, but Timmy didn’t even react until it was past him, very strange. Overall a good effort by the team, just unlucky. Hit a lot of iron today. And how about Marchand? Two sick chances just barely missing.
I guess it was a good move after all is said and done that the Bruins didn’t deal one of their goaltenders at the trade deadline. Many people were, both fans & journalists were pleading their cases to trade Thomas or Raask. This shows why depth at goaltender is a necessity and if you have it consider yourself lucky.
I stand by my prior post. This Rangers team is a lot like last years cup winners, Lindquist is increadible.