All clogged up again
B’s just can’t figure out Ottawa’s trap
Tuukka Rask hasn’t tried to carry or pass a single puck through the smothering neutral zone defense of the Ottawa Senators, but he has a pretty good idea what his mates have to do to find success in that regard.
And he has great firsthand knowledge of what happens, often extremely quickly, when a turnover between the blue lines by the Bruins creates a lightning-quick transition attack by the Senators.
He saw that happen too frequently last night in Game 4 of the B’s-Sens first-round playoff series. And even though he and his mates allowed just one goal, that was all their guests required to grab a 1-0 victory and 3-1 series lead.
“I think we played pretty good for a good chunk of time,” said Rask. “You just can’t start dangling through those guys. They’re going to turn it over and make you pay.
“So you’ve just got to stay patient, try to get pucks deep and grind it out. You can’t be stubborn; you have to believe that we have to grind it out. I don’t think it’s frustrating for us. You just have to make the play when it’s there, and when it’s not there don’t try to make it.
“A lot of times you’re in the right spot but (your pass) just hits a stick and away they go. So, yeah, they clog that neutral zone. You can’t dangle through it, you just can’t turn the puck over against this team.”
Rask felt his team played quite well in this one, and, actually, in all four games in the series.
“We played a pretty solid defensive game,” Rask said. “We blocked a lot of shots and pretty much kept them on the outside. There were some outmanned rushes, some breakaways, which they really thrive on. But for the most part I thought we did a good job defensively.”
The game was decided on a lucky bounce when Ottawa’s Bobby Ryan scored the only goal at 5:49 of the third. On the play, Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson shot from the point, the puck struck a skate en route and caromed perfectly to Ryan near the left post. Rask dived across and got his stick on the puck for a moment, but Ryan managed to control enough to slide it slowly in behind the sprawling goalie and defender Zdeno Chara.
“I think (Karlsson) shot it and (it got) deflected and started bouncing,” Rask said. “I think it hit somebody’s skate. I didn’t see him releasing that shot, but it hit somebody’s skate and ended up back-door.
“I had my stick on it but I just couldn’t pull it back. (Ryan) had an extra second and stuffed it in.”
Of course, a single goal probably should not have been enough to win this game. The B’s had plenty of chances, particularly early, but couldn’t solve Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson, whom Rask regards as an unorthodox puck-stopper with similarities to Tim Thomas.
“He’s like Timmy the way he plays,” Rask said. “(People) don’t give him credit, because he doesn’t look like all the other goalies. He’s kind of unorthodox but he stops the pucks.
“He’s standing half the time on shots; he doesn’t butterfly. He does the Tim Thomas moves: One leg down, one leg up.
“Not a lot of goalies do it that way. It’s fun to watch, good to see there’s still some old-school goalies out there.”
The Bruins better figure out Anderson in a hurry when the teams reconvene in Ottawa, or summer vacation will arrive for the B’s and their fans.
“We’ll start by winning one game,” Rask said. “That’s all you’ve got to focus on: Winning one game. Then come back and win another one at home, and then it’s Game 7. You don’t have to make it any more complicated than it is. Us as veterans have to make sure that the young guys don’t hang their heads. We’ve just got to believe.
“We’ve just got to make sure that we play a heck of a game (tomorrow night). We’ve played must-win games for the last monthand-a-half, so I don’t think that’s going to change anything. Obviously you know that your season is on the line, so you just have to make sure that you show up, play a good game and leave it all out there.”