B’s goaltender Rask ready to start anew
port and knew what was going on. And there were no issues coming in here. We were in touch this summer and had discussions about whatever, life, teammates and stuff and there were no issues coming back.”
Initially, GM Don Sweeney downplayed the emergency nature of the situation on the morning Rask left the bubble. But the goalie, without explaining exactly what was going on with his daughter, revealed why he left so abruptly.
“Everything happened so quickly, I think that (Sweeney) was kind of caught by surprise by it, too. I got a phone call the night before that our daughter wasn’t doing so well at that point and they had to call an ambulance. Obviously at that point, my mind was spinning. I’m like ‘I need to get out of here.’ So then the next morning I informed him. We had a brief talk and I left,” said Rask, who said his daughter is fine now.
Sweeney voiced his support for Rask that day and on several occasions since then, as did his Bruin teammates, which bolstered him.
“It means a lot,” said Rask. “Like you probably know, we’re a pretty tight group and we try to stay together on and off the ice. It meant a lot that day that they had my back on that. It was a great thing to see, that your teammates have your back.”
Rask is in the final year of his contract, and again said he would like to continue playing, and for no other team but the Bruins.
“I’ve said that before. I have no intention of playing anywhere else except for the Bruins, so if I’m good enough to play one, two, three more years then so be it. If I’m not then so be it. That’s where my head’s at,” said Rask.
While there are some intriguing goaltending prospects in the system — Daniel Vladar, Jeremy
Swayman, Kyle Keyser — none have proven they’re ready to take the torch. But so far, there have been no discussions about an extension.
“What the situation is now is everything’s kind of upside down with the hockey world and Sweens has a lot on his plate right now. My contract situation is probably not on top of his list at the moment,” said Rask. “I’m comfortable with where we are right now. I just want to go out there and start the season right and get on a good groove and play good hockey personally and as a team and if the contract talks happen during the season, so be it. And if they don’t, we’ll just wait it out and see what happens. But my main focus right now is to get the season started off right. And then worry about the future after that.”
Rask’s immediate future will be to play behind a defense that will no longer have Torey Krug or Zdeno Chara, a goalie’s ultimate security blanket.
“It’s going to be different without him, for sure. When I was texting him, I told him I’m definitely going to miss him. We’ve talked about it before that he’s such a big part of the penalty kill, he reads the play so well and his stick’s always in the right spot. Even on the entries, his stick’s so long that he creates so many offsides,” said Rask.
“It’s going to be different, but I think the guys that we have have played some games already, so it’s not like they’re going to be jumping into the unknown. It’ ll just be more minutes for them. Obviously everybody makes mistakes and we’re prepared that mistakes that are going to happen. But I feel that we’re very comfortable for this group that we have.”