After having an average start to the season for Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, his job as the team’s starter may be in jeopardy. Jaroslav Halak’s play in his first six starts of the season has put some pressure on Rask to perform better, which he has not done. Over six games, Halak has a 1.52 goals-against-average and has faced 17 more shots than Rask, who has a 3.15 goals-against-average in the same number of games.
In Halak’s most recent game against the Carolina Hurricanes, he stopped 42 of 44 shots in the Bruins 3-2 win and earned his fourth win of the year.
Boston Bruins Might Want to Turn to Jaroslav Halak
Rask’s Latest Game
In Rask’s most recent game against the Montreal Canadiens, he allowed two goals on 22 shots for his third loss of the season. He now holds a record of 3-3-0 after six starts. The loss certainly cannot all be blamed on the Bruins long-time goaltender, as a team cannot win a game with no goals. But after allowing a puck to sneak through on Montreal’s fourth shot of the game, especially when Rask was ready for the shot, the game was lost before even playing 10 minutes. Then, only a minute later, Rask allowed a goal off a weird sequence. Again, not entirely his fault, but big stops need to happen.
Halak has proved that he can make those big stops. As it was with Anton Khudobin a year ago, the front five on the ice for the Bruins appear to be more comfortable with the “backup” in net.
Cassidy’s Choice
NBC Sports Boston writer Joe Haggerty tweeted about a conversation he and Bruce Cassidy had:
I asked Bruce Cassidy if there will come a point where they'll stop scripting out goalie starts & just go w/the guy that's playing the best: "If Jaro [Halak] is able to push [Rask] and eventually take the job…if and when that happens then we'll look at that."
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) October 26, 2018
From this interaction, Cassidy appears to consider Rask and Halak on an even playing field. Even before the season started, it was clear that Halak was not simply just a backup goaltender. After a 20-26-6 season as a starter for the New York Islanders, Halak was one of their strongest players despite his losing record. In a game he started against the Philadelphia Flyers, Halak stopped all 26 shots and recorded his second shutout of the season.
What Could Happen to Rask?
It is unlikely that Rask is dealt away or sent to Providence. Halak is two years older than Rask, so he is not a long-term solution to Boston’s goaltending situation. The most likely outcome of these two goaltenders is that they split time for quite a while. We may see one getting more playing time, but to waste talent from either goaltender by making them the backup and having them play fewer games would be a mistake. Despite what Cassidy is hinting at, a starter may not emerge until the playoffs, if the Bruins can make it.
Both are valuable to the organization at this point. Typically, if a team’s goaltender is starting to decline, the younger goalie will start to take more games, like Andrei Vasilevskiy did when Ben Bishop was still on the Tampa Bay Lightning. But the Bruins situation is far more different than that as Rask is the younger one and neither of them are trying to prove they are elite, as they both have many seasons of play.
What’s Next for Boston
It looks like Cassidy will continue to alternate between Rask and Halak for now. The season is only 12 games deep, so there is still a lot of time to see if there is one goaltender who emerges with a starting spot or if they will continue to share time.
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