Tuukka Rask: can he maintain consistency?

[CDN24]

In the Montreal series, Boston gave up a lot of gret scoring opportunities with blown coverages and turnovers and the Canadiens players capitalized on those chances. Boston had a harder time generating quality scoring chances that they actually could score on. Boston made Price look a lot better than he is as they continually shoot the puck into Price's chest (which they have done since he came into the league). This can be contributed to Price being good positionally, but we have seen Bruins' players have half the net to shoot at, hit him in the chest. When they didn't hit him in the chest, they either missed the net or hit the post.

No Boston goalie even Thomas can win against Montreal when the team in front of them is not scoring goals. The biggest difference between the two teams is that Montreal players step their games up gainst the Bruins where the Bruins players (ALL PLayers) tend to play poorly. It could be that Montreal is normally the underdog and have nothing to lose where the Bruins know if they lose then everyone will be talking about how they cannot beat the Canadiens because of some curse.

I think we have to remember that even Tim Thomas had trouble at times against the Canadiens when he was first starting out with Boston. The Bruins play a completely different style against Montreal than they do against every other team in the league and as a former goalie, you plan your game based on how the team in front of you plays. When you know how the team plays against 28 teams it easy to know what is expected from you. Against Montreal, we don't know if Boston will win 7-6 or or lose 6-0. This means that Rask (or any other goalie) doesn't know if they are going to have to get a shutout to win or if they can play a little more relaxed if a goal happens to go in because they have confidence that the team in front of them will score.

Until the entire team can figure out the proper gameplan against Montreal, we will continue to see loses go up in the column and the same conversations every off season.

Disclaimer- I am a Habs fan. Habs fan take on the series. I went into that series thinking habs had a shot if they could get to Rask early in the series and get in his head given his regular season record against them. Rask was not the problem. he played well.

The two recent playoff eliminations are by the hawks and habs. Look at what those teams have in common (god knows its not talent as habs are way behind hawks) and you will see why the bruins do not match up with them. Its speed. Hawks and habs are fast skating teams. Bruins could not deal with the speed, and the fact that Habs/hawks are not intimidated by the bruins intimidation tactics.

Don't question why he couldn't stop one or 2 of the breakaways against him- question why the vaunted defensive B's were giving up the breakaways. The big guy has always had problems with speed and at 37-38 its only getting worse. Hawks didn't try to avoid chara- they wanted him playing the puck getting a bit more tired and a bit slower. Thats the key to beating the bruins. The Leafs team that pushed you to 7 was fast too.

 

[Caper Bruins fan]

H

Disclaimer- I am a Habs fan. Habs fan take on the series. I went into that series thinking habs had a shot if they could get to Rask early in the series and get in his head given his regular season record against them. Rask was not the problem. he played well.

The two recent playoff eliminations are by the hawks and habs. Look at what those teams have in common (god knows its not talent as habs are way behind hawks) and you will see why the bruins do not match up with them. Its speed. Hawks and habs are fast skating teams. Bruins could not deal with the speed, and the fact that Habs/hawks are not intimidated by the bruins intimidation tactics.

Don't question why he couldn't stop one or 2 of the breakaways against him- question why the vaunted defensive B's were giving up the breakaways. The big guy has always had problems with speed and at 37-38 its only getting worse. Hawks didn't try to avoid chara- they wanted him playing the puck getting a bit more tired and a bit slower. Thats the key to beating the bruins. The Leafs team that pushed you to 7 was fast too.

I don't think it is that black and white.Rask was not the sole reason the Bruins lost but he was not at his best in the Montreal series.The Bruins were 1:23 away from going to a game 7 with Chicago,I don't think a lack of speed was the primary reason for that meltdown.

 

[CDN24]

I don't think it is that black and white.Rask was not the sole reason the Bruins lost but he was not at his best in the Montreal series.The Bruins were 1:23 away from going to a game with Chicago,I don't think a lack of speed was the primary reason for that meltdown.

Rask played better in that series than he does against mtl in the regular season 3-4 is better than 3-8-3. That said he plays his best when he plays behind a confident intimidating bruins squad that defend like crazy and can seem to score at will. We did not see that bruins team in this series or the hawks series for that matter and my point is the reason we did not see it is they had trouble with the opponents speed. That and mtl was not intimidated. Many teams go into Boston a little scared an intimidated by the tough high scoring Bruins- Mtl is not intimidated as they know they can win. bruins know it too and it gets in their heads.

 

[jgatie]

Disclaimer- I am a Habs fan. Habs fan take on the series. I went into that series thinking habs had a shot if they could get to Rask early in the series and get in his head given his regular season record against them. Rask was not the problem. he played well.

The two recent playoff eliminations are by the hawks and habs. Look at what those teams have in common (god knows its not talent as habs are way behind hawks) and you will see why the bruins do not match up with them. Its speed. Hawks and habs are fast skating teams. Bruins could not deal with the speed, and the fact that Habs/hawks are not intimidated by the bruins intimidation tactics.

Don't question why he couldn't stop one or 2 of the breakaways against him- question why the vaunted defensive B's were giving up the breakaways. The big guy has always had problems with speed and at 37-38 its only getting worse. Hawks didn't try to avoid chara- they wanted him playing the puck getting a bit more tired and a bit slower. Thats the key to beating the bruins. The Leafs team that pushed you to 7 was fast too.

Your advantage in that series were your role players chipping in until your first line figured out how to get around Chara (which they did by purposefully injuring him). Remember that the early headlines were how Chara was dominating Pacioretty, not the other way around. Your vaunted speed was neutralized by Bergeron and Chara until dirty, repeated two-handers to Chara broke his fingers and made him useless. Speed wasn't the problem; defensive depth, a slight letdown by Tuukka, and shooting the puck into Price's chest was.