BOSTON – While the details behind Tuukka Rask’s last minute illness may never fully be known, it certainly made for a stunning Bruins start to a must-win matinee against the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden.
Jonas Gustavsson said it all happened pretty quickly, and that he was ready to jump in when the team needed him. But it certainly was eye-opening and a bit shocking to anybody outside the Bruins dressing room while watching Rask barely move from a spot in front of the B’s bench during pregame warm-up, and then quickly leave the ice early after facing just a couple of shots between the pipes.
“I found out pretty much almost as soon as I got [to TD Garden]. I got the word that he [Tuukka Rask] was sick and there was a big chance that I was playing and a few minutes later they said I was playing,” said Gustavsson. “It was just about getting ready as another game. I felt pretty good going into the game. Yeah, that’s about it.”
The surprise of Jonas Gustavsson starting in such an important late season gave way to relief when the Monster made 17 saves in the first period to stake the Black and Gold to a slim one goal lead, and then to a face palm in the second period when it all came crashing down.
It was far from Gustavsson’s fault, but the B’s backup netminder gave up four goals on 17 shots in the final 40 minutes of an embarrassing one-sided loss. The first was a puck that Gustavsson wasn’t able to freeze, and instead Chris Neil jammed the puck into the net as it sat idly under the Bruins goalie in the crease.
That first one could conceivably be on the goalie, but the others were wide-open shots from the slot or tips and redirections that he didn’t have any chance at stopping behind a shaky defense.
In other words Gustavsson was far from the problem.
Boston Bruins
“It shouldn’t have been an issue. I think he [Rask] is a great goaltender but our team could have easily played much better, and allowed Gus to be the winning goalie today,” said Claude Julien. “I think some of the goals that they scored, those tips and a lot of those goals, we didn’t give him much help. If anything he gave us a lot of help there in that first period. Certainly not the reason for [the loss] and again, excuses are out the windows. There are none.”
The Bruins players uniformly said that the last minute goaltending change didn’t do anything to rattle them, but a sudden change like that for a sometimes fragile hockey club in a big game certainly doesn’t help matters.
“It’s tough right away, right after, to say exactly what happened there. Obviously they got a few goals, they got some deflection goals and rebounds and stuff like that. Maybe they were really on their toes and got those breaks, and bounces with them as well,” said Gustavsson. “We could have scored a few goals like that too in the game. We put a lot of pucks at their net. But obviously me, myself and the team got to find a way to stop the bleeding there, and maybe not dig ourselves into a hole like that because it’s tough to come back from.”
Gustavsson and the rest of the Bruins, including the ill Rask, will now have all offseason to figure out the best ways to come back from another season without the Stanley Cup playoff invite.