It was always Red State vs. Blue State around Boston when the topic was Tuukka Rask. It was like debating bike lanes vs. parking spaces, or tenpins vs. candlepins. It was Needham vs. Wellesley on Thanksgiving morning, and Reese’s cups vs. M&M’s on Halloween night.
For you (we) older folks, every Tuukka Rask discussion was about as civil as Archie Bunker going at it with the Meathead, and about as sophisticated as the choice between Ginger and Mary Ann.
Advertisement
Everyone had an opinion about Rask. It was crazy. Here’s a guy who won more games (308) and more Stanley Cup playoff games (57) than any goaltender in Bruins history, while posting more shutouts (52) than all but one (Tiny Thompson). And yet, there was always an element out there that blamed him for seemingly everything. Except that it all boiled down to just one thing: Tuukka Rask didn’t netmind the B’s to a Stanley Cup championship.
He might have been forgiven for that if it were the ’80s or ’90s. Ray Bourque didn’t play on a Cup winner until he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche, and he’s much-loved by Bruins fans. As for Cam Neely, a great Bruin from back in the “Cheers” days who now is team president, he didn’t play on a Cup winner, either.
Rask’s image problem is easily explained: Tim Thomas was the standing-on-his-head goaltender who took the Bruins on a magical Stanley Cup run in the spring of 2011, and maybe we should pause here for a moment so that we can all close our eyes and recall Thomas’ stick save on the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steve Downie in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Pause.
Thank you.
Rask was the backup goaltender that spring. And then Thomas went away … and, well, Rask did not win a Stanley Cup championship. That’s a tough sell in Boston sports, 21st-century edition, what with the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins combining to win 12 championships.
In the end, though, Tuukka Rask exits the Boston stage as a man who deserves a mountain of respect — not just for providing more than a decade-and-a-half of stellar goaltending, but for daring to attempt a late-in-life comeback from surgery to repair a torn labrum. Comebacks are hard. Comebacks are lonely. Comebacks are emotionally taxing.
And yet Rask gave it a go, even if it was tough to watch, especially that last game against Anaheim, a 5-3 loss. If you can’t respect him for what he tried to do, it means your problem was never really Rask at all. You needed a target, is all, and Rask — who, let’s face it, could be needy at times — provided you with that target.
Advertisement
While I have no idea what Rask’s financial situation is, it’s a safe bet he could have chucked the whole hockey thing, taken his family back to Finland and lived out his years in spectacular comfort.
He was just 20 years old when he made his NHL debut. The date was Nov. 20, 2007, less than a month after the Red Sox swept the Rockies in the World Series, and just two days after the undefeated Patriots rolled to a 56-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills. It was the night before Ray Allen (21 points), Kevin Garnett (20 points) and Paul Pierce (19 points) powered the new-look, new-Big Three Celtics to a 105-82 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Yep, it was into that vortex of high-stakes Boston sports that Rask was hurtled, and the skinny kid from Savonlinna came up big in his first game, making 30 saves in the Bruins’ 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Man, that was a long time ago. He’s still just 34, but probably banged up, and yet he was out there trying to make it all work again.
Now from a historical perspective, it’s not on par with what Tony Conigliaro pulled off in 1969, when, for a few years anyway, he made a comeback after being struck in the face by that Jack Hamilton spitter in 1967.
And from the perspective of heartbreak, we can’t compare him to former Bruin Gord Kluzak and former Patriot Robert Edwards. Kluzak kept trying to come back, knee surgery after knee surgery after knee surgery, until playing in his last game on Nov. 5, 1990. He was 26.
Edwards, a running back selected 18th by the Patriots in the 1998 NFL Draft, had a promising rookie season, rushing for 1,115 yards. But then he damaged his left knee so badly during a Pro Bowl-related flag football game that there were initial fears part of his leg would need to be amputated. He didn’t return to the NFL until 2002, with the Miami Dolphins. He played in 12 games. He drifted to the Canadian Football League and had a couple of pretty good seasons, but come on: It wasn’t the NFL.
Advertisement
Rask was a veteran player who’d been around the block a few times. He wasn’t robbed of a long career, as happened to Conigliaro, Kluzak and Edwards. Then again, an older player trying to take a surgically-repaired body back to the fray must be willing to cast aside hard-earned comforts, must be willing to step away from the family, must be willing to start all over again.
Tuukka Rask took that shot, even if it was his last shot. In that respect, and, yeah, OK, we’re going to stoop to cliche here: He went out a winner.
(Top photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
