Tuukka Rask’s season debut for the Bruins last week was strong. He stopped 25 of 27 shots, including multiple breakaways, in a 3-2 win over the Flyers.
His second start did not go nearly as well. Rask gave up five goals on 12 shots before getting pulled after one period in the Bruins’ blowout loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday.
While that disastrous period had far more to do with the team in front of him turning the puck over and leaving guys open in front of the net, it was still a reminder that there are going to be some bumps in the road as Rask works his way back up to full speed after missing so much time.
Making his weekly appearance on Gresh & Keefe on Thursday, NESN analyst and former Bruins goalie Andrew Raycroft broke down what he’s seen from Rask so far.
“Playing hockey for Tuukka, stopping pucks is very easy for him. The negative is he didn’t get an extra 40 minutes the other night,” Raycroft said. “There’s nothing in that that tells me he was horrible. There’s nothing in those 20 minutes to tell me, ‘Wow, he’s not ready to play at this level.’ He made a really good save about 12 seconds before the first goal went in, went to his left, stayed on this feet, drove into it. Really good save there. He made a breakaway save.
“So he’s stopped a few high-danger chances. But it’s really hard to take anything from the 80 minutes he’s played. I think he’s still going to manage his games and get better over time. So, hard to take a lot out of the 80 minutes. I think he’s going to be fine. Nothing’s changed for me.”
Mike Milbury also preached patience with Rask during his weekly appearance on The Greg Hill Show, suggesting that it could take as long as two months before Rask is fully back to being himself. The goal, he said, is just to make sure Rask is ready for the playoffs.
“There’s no set answer for that, but I’d say it’s gonna take six weeks, a couple months,” Milbury said. “He wasn’t out that long, and it wasn’t that serious of a surgery, so I think he should be able to get back pretty quickly. I’d say by playoff time, he should be ready to go and they’ll ride him.”
Listen to the full interviews with Raycroft and Milbury below:
