Despite Win, Boston Bruins Goalie Tuukka Rask Still Searching for Vezina Form

Tuukka Rask’s first regulation win since opening night was anything but a smooth 60-minute ride. The Boston Bruins’ 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday had a convincing conclusion, but not before an iffy first 40 minutes.

By repelling all 10 of San Jose’s third-period shots, Rask kept the adversary off the board for an entire regulation stanza for just the second time in his last 12 tries.

His 31 total stops gave him a single-night save percentage of .912, easily his best in his last four outings.

And by doing his part to keep Boston ahead after Gregory Campbell’s eventual decider with nine minutes and 18 seconds to spare, he successfully salvaged a lead for the first time since Oct. 8.

All that notwithstanding, preceding developments as recent as Tuesday’s middle frame had to have Bruins buffs fidgeting. For the seventh and eighth time in six total ventures in 2014-15, Rask let in an opposing equalizer.

In fairness, Logan Couture’s two Tuesday tallies were not the easiest to handle. The Sharks striker drew a 1-1 knot on a tip-in at 16:28 of the first and then made it 2-2 with a 21-foot wrister at 16:45 of the second.

Come what may, entering the third period, the Bruins had given Rask nine leads to protect in this young season. None of those advantages expanded beyond a single goal and eight of them evaporated.

The lone exception was in the Oct. 8 opener, when Boston needed to hang on for 1:51 to preserve a 2-1 triumph. Chris Kelly snapped the deadlock against Philadelphia and neither side mustered a shot on net thereafter.

Rask’s only other win on the year, which he and his mates garnered precisely one week later, required a shootout after they blew 1-0 and 2-1 edges to Detroit.

The sample size is still slim, but it is brimming with a troubling trend. For the third time in as many starts, Rask was on duty when the Bruins let the opposition pull even.

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In between last Wednesday’s eventual shootout win over the Red Wings and Tuesday’s tilt, there was last Thursday’s mouthful of Montreal vinegar.

That night, the Bruins drew first blood, as they have in six of eight tries and five of six times in front of Rask. A pair of lead changes amounted to a 3-2 Boston edge, which would last a mere 6:40.

Rask hit the nadir of his 2014-15 campaign—if such a thing exists at the five-game mark—not long after that. He gave way to Niklas Svedberg at the 7:17 mark of the third period upon missing his fifth biscuit on 23 tests. That included four hiccups on a mere 15 even-strength bids.

Even if Boston’s blue-line brigade warranted the brunt of the blame against the Habs, which one can credibly claim, Rask could stand to replenish his confidence. A stable stretch of 60 minutes spanning one calendar date is the still-unfilled prescription.

Rask’s skating mates pounced on their first chance at that this past Saturday, when they joined Svedberg in a tidy 4-0 beating of Buffalo.

On Tuesday, the reigning recipient of the Vezina Trophy had his shot—on the heels of a generous five-day hiatus from game action, no less.

But the Sharks, who entered Tuesday’s action tied with Tampa Bay for eighth in the league with 3.17 goals per game, had their own turnaround in mind. After tuning the mesh no fewer than three times in each of their first five ventures, they had endured a 4-0 shutout via Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers on Sunday.

A goaltender of Rask’s established caliber should be able to answer a challenge of that weight. To his credit, by night’s end, he had enough mulligans and answers for a win.

Still, his young 2014-15 transcript continues to evoke memories of 2010-11. Those were the days when Tim Thomas was still the clear-cut starter and Rask’s output was mysteriously below the bar he had set as a rookie.

Recall that Rask’s first full NHL regular season ended with a sparkling 1.97 goals-against average and .931 save percentage over 45 games.

The next season, the dreaded sophomore slide yielded a 2.67 GAA and .918 save percentage in 29 appearances. The then-23-year-old halted less than 91 percent of a given foe’s biscuits in 12 of those outings.

For what it’s worth, he went winless in his first five ventures that season, letting 12 biscuits get by in 13 periods. So far this season, the 27-year-old is 3-3-0 with 17 setbacks in 17-plus periods.

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Whether the culprit is a Vezina hangover, collaborative collapses with the defense or anything in between, Rask needs to rectify those results. If that requires a slight slowdown in game frequency, head coach Claude Julien may be able to pursue that option.

Based on Boston’s schedule for the near future, Rask could earn a few more protracted breathers. In other words, more windows resembling his gap in game activity between the Montreal and San Jose contests.

Starting with this Thursday’s visit from the New York Islanders, the Bruins’ next seven games are spaced out exclusively over Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Based on his first two full-length performances alone, Svedberg should get a look in one or two of those.

That will afford Rask plenty of recharging and refocusing periods lasting three days at the least and five at the most.

The latter, of course, may not happen at all if Rask can present himself as a masked man of momentum. The Bruins should expect nothing less from someone who is coming off an offseason of four-plus months on the heels of a Vezina and an Olympic bronze medal.

The final four minutes of Tuesday’s action emit some promise on that front. Five minutes and nine seconds after Campbell spotted Boston its third lead of the night, Patrice Bergeron incurred a double-minor for high-sticking.

The timing of the infraction put the Bruins on the penalty kill until the final nine seconds of regulation. Given the circumstances, Rask might have been mildly absolved if he had conceded a ninth equalizer.

Instead, after various skaters blocked three bids, he summoned whistles with three of his own stops. His fifth and final save on the kill in question preceded David Krejci’s empty-netter at the 19:35 mark.

How about that? A multigoal lead for Rask to protect, and one that he was doubtlessly instrumental in enabling. For those unfamiliar with the Finnish fortress’ previous five years, that must bear a sense of novelty.

Vintage Rask is creeping back, but he will not crash the surface until Tuesday’s final minutes triple their shelf life for a night.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found on NHL.com.