Do Rask & The B’s Give Reason To Believe In Boston?

Tuukka Rask finished the season with the league's best goals against average and save percentage.

While it looked unlikely, and at times just plain impossible, the B’s are in the NHL Playoffs for the third straight season. It wasn’t easy, and the climb has yet to begin, but when the Bruins take to the ice of the HSBC Arena on Thursday night to begin their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series against the Northeast Division winning Buffalo Sabres, do Bruins fans believe that this club can pull off the upset despite the injuries, rotten luck, and the lack of a consistency that has beleaguered the B’s in 2009-10?

As social-networking would tell us, yes, they do.

Losing Marc Savard in early-March on an unpunished cheapshot from Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins (let’s not go down that street), the B’s were doomed. Riddled by injuries, failure to capitalize on match-up advantages, and simply incapable of putting together a solid sixty minute effort, the B’s seemed destined for 9th place, if not lower, ruining a season that began with starry-eyed Cup dreams.

However, the B’s found their saving grace in rookie goaltender Tuukka Rask. Injuries continued to mount in the Hub, notably on the blue-line with the B’s losing Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg, and Mark Stuart along their journey towards clinching a playoff spot, but one thing remained the same; the effectiveness of Rask to perform just when the B’s needed him.

Outside of a rookie hiccup against the Tampa Bay Lightning where Rask allowed five goals on 18 shots, the Finnish butterfly-styled netminder has been the ace in the crease for Boston. Since the Olympic break, Rask boasts an 8-5-1 record, which by all means is nothing spectacular, but it’s his numbers within these contests that excite the eyes.

With a save percentage coming in at just .064 of a percentage away from perfection (.936 since March) and a goals against average of 1.77, the Rask Standard if you will has been continually on the rise with each start #40 in black-and-gold gets. As B’s fans sat in front of their TV’s and computers awaiting to see who their opponent in the first round would be as the Devils and Sabres battled in a regular-season finale that would determine the second and three seed in the Eastern Conference, the thought among most was that either way, the Bruins would have a chance thanks to Tuukka’s play.

Going 1-0-1 on the season against the Devils in 2009-10, Rask had a mind-blowing 0.36 goals against average and stopped 73 of 74 New Jersey shots he faced. If that didn’t give you any confidence, Rask had a similarly impressive record against the Northeast Division counterpart Buffalo Sabres, against whom Rask had a 4-1-0 record with a 1.43 goals against average and .954SV%.

In front of Rask, there’s no debating that the offense has been an unmitigated disaster and the Bruins’ achilles heel in 2009-10, but could that be on the verge of breaking out? Finishing the season with three straight wins, the Bruins got a refreshing bounty of goals from their wingers and some much needed help from their depleted defense. On the receiving end of help from offensive help from wingers Miroslav Satan, Marco Sturm, Blake Wheeler and two from Michael Ryder along with point-streak that has now reached five games for defensemen Dennis Wideman, what should B’s fans expect come Thursday night?

For Ryder, who had just three goals in the final 22 games of the season the albeit doubtful, but possible sequel to last season’s highly successful postseason is there. A notoriously streaky scorer throughout his entire career, throughout his tenure in Boston when registering at least two points  in the previous game, he’s had at least one point in the next contest 11 times. The bad news? Only one of those has come in 2009-10.

In the case of Sturm, a return to the ice of the playoffs from the press-box could be the only motivation needed. Sturm, whose season was ended prematurely in 2008-09 with a major-knee injury in a collision along the boards on December 18th, scored his last playoff goal in the pivotal and legendary Game 6 in Boston against the Montreal Canadiens in 2008 and finished this season as Boston’s leading goal scorer with 22 tallies on the season. Similar to Sturm in terms of view of last season’s playoffs, Blake Wheeler will look to avenge being benched in the 2009 playoffs by head coach Claude Julien after the 6’5″ rookie failed to register a point in eight games.

No stranger to benching scoring wingers, in fact being the third one he’s sat in the post-season (Alex Kovalev and Phil Kessel being the lucky two),  can Julien’s benching of Wheeler pay dividends in terms of picking up Wheeler’s level of intensity which has at times looked good, before quickly disappearing.

While it’s not going to be a goal-scoring display of any sort with Rask squaring off against the goaltending wizardry of Ryan Miller, if the B’s get these contributions from the wings then an upset could be in the making between these two divisional foes.

While EA Sports is picking the Sabres to win the series in six games, do you believe, Boston?

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