Tuukka was the greatest goalie in franchise history. Sad to see him go.
View: https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1491536194336968706
View: https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1491536194336968706
Tuukka Rask announces his retirement
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
There is is. We will miss Tuukka. It's kinda strange living with the mortality of the core of a team that has been together for so long. First Chara, then Krejci, now Tuukka. More to come, sadly. Amazing career. Thanks, Toronto.
Glad that he played his entire NHL career n Boston. It would have sucked to see him play those last few games in another sweater.
One of the more underappreciated Boston athletes of recent times. Hope he and his family enjoy his retirement.
One of the more underappreciated Boston athletes of recent times. Hope he and his family enjoy his retirement.
I know that GAA isn’t the end all be all of goalie stats, but I’m just going to put this right here:
There are a lot of hall of famers on that list. Personally, I would vote for him. He’s a slam dunk Bruins hall of fame (or whatever they’re calling it) and a potential number retirement candidate.
There are a lot of hall of famers on that list. Personally, I would vote for him. He’s a slam dunk Bruins hall of fame (or whatever they’re calling it) and a potential number retirement candidate.
Tuukka is a Hall of Famer and the greatest goalie in franchise history. Yes it helps to play behind a good structured defense, which Tuukka did for most of his career, but he was a fundamental part of that structure too; knowing that if you channel players to specific areas that your goaltender is going to be in position to make the save and control the rebound is a critical, and Tuukka was always were he was supposed to be.
We've been very spoiled in net for the last 15 years. Here's hoping the new kids are up to the challenge.
We've been very spoiled in net for the last 15 years. Here's hoping the new kids are up to the challenge.
Cross posting from the other thread. Thank you, Tuukka.
View: https://twitter.com/jfreshhockey/status/1491434278760382464?s=21
View: https://twitter.com/jfreshhockey/status/1491434278760382464?s=21
I like how they included the Providence meltdown in the tribute video. He will be missed.
View: https://twitter.com/nhlbruins/status/1491543653822644224?s=21
View: https://twitter.com/nhlbruins/status/1491543653822644224?s=21
Absolutely. I am thinking next season when the Leafs visit the B's would be perfect.
TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Legend. Hall of Fame bound. Bruins royalty.
Thanks for everything Tuukka
Legend. Hall of Fame bound. Bruins royalty.
Thanks for everything Tuukka
He was awesome. Remarkably consistent with several bursts of excellence made to look easy, over what really could have been a golden age of the franchise and was instead “merely” a silver age and an absolutely awesome time to be a fan. Hard not to respect the work ethic in changing his style to improve, leaving the bubble for his family, wanting to stay in Boston, and hazarding one more attempt to put it all together. HoF, and it’s not close IMHO.
I won’t even mention that a 34 year old goalie with a career-ending injury that is visibly hampering his movement probably shouldn’t start a playoff elimination game after playing more games in fewer nights than he had done all year.
I won’t even mention that a 34 year old goalie with a career-ending injury that is visibly hampering his movement probably shouldn’t start a playoff elimination game after playing more games in fewer nights than he had done all year.
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Wow this is hitting me harder than I expected. Greatest goalie in B's history and a definite HoFer.
His #40 should definitely hang from the rafters. And he should have a plaque in the Legends Club at TD Garden. And I imagine he will be a shoo-in for the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame.
It would be nice to see his plaque in Toronto, but unclear how the voting will go in his case.
It would be nice to see his plaque in Toronto, but unclear how the voting will go in his case.
I’d like to think so, but Tiny Thompson’s 1 and Gerry Cheevers’ 30 aren’t. Maybe Tuukka’s the one to break the ice.
And that’s not me saying he doesn’t deserve to see 40 hang, it’s a commentary that the Bruins are among the league leaders in retired numbers and not one’s a goalie.
He's had an incredible career and I'm glad he came back to give it one last shot to make sure he's not leaving anything in the tank.
He's grossly underappreciated by the vast majority of Bruins fans and that's a terrible shame.
He's grossly underappreciated by the vast majority of Bruins fans and that's a terrible shame.
I actually don't think that's true. There's definitely a loud (small) contingent that makes it seem that way. I think the majority (like 99%) of Bruins fans realize what he's meant to the team.
My experiences on Twitter, Reddit and FB show that to be uncertain at best. Lots of "he quit on the team!" bullshit being bandied about today. I hate everyone.
People definitely still harbor resentment over the Philly series and the fact that it was TT stealing the show the next year.
I think he'll always be a little under appreciated because of his style as well. His absolute best games were not of the flying around making miraculous saves variety, they were him being an immovable brick wall perfectly positioned for 60 minutes to such a degree that shooters had no choice but to fail. His athleticism and pure skill were a little less obvious because of how fundamentally sound he was when at his best.
With better luck he's a 3x Cup winner with two of those as a leader of the team. Still an absolute legend regardless.
Does this fully close the book on a generation of heavily-tilted Toronto-Boston transactions?
Rickard Rakell is still playing (for the Ducks).
Oh, as is John Gibson (for the Ducks). LOL, Toronto really lost on that deal with Anaheim.
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I will defend Rask til the day I die. Wish the comeback had worked, will have nothing but incredible memories of him (provided I eventually forget about the last 75 seconds of Game 6 vs the Blackhawks). Thank you, for everything, enjoy retirement Mr. Rask.
I’d imagine the problem is that almost everyone commenting on him have actually never played goalie in hockey before so don’t understand the mentality. I love being in net because I can’t physically win the game, but I can absolutely lose it. It’s one of those things if you are a little off, you give up 6 goals in a game. And if a goalie has a bad game it’s very noticeable. If Bergy had an off night in the face off and loses 9 of 10 it doesn’t definitively lead to losing a game. And to be able to brush that off night come off as not caring, and to be a good goalie you absolutely have to move on from those games
To anyone who isn't on social media and doesn't have to see the flood of posts from Bruins fans about Rask is missing out on one of the great moments in cognitive dissonance in our time. The refrain from some on here is that it's a small contingent of people who don't follow the game, only the team, and don't get how the sport actually works.
I can tell you, with certainty, that is the farthest thing from the truth. While it's a small sample size, I have several friends/acquaintances on social media who are Bruins lifers. One guy in particular, older than me by several years, basically schedules his life around Bruins games whenever he can (which isn't often since he works a blue collar job and is on his second marriage with two young children and one from the previous marriage who is like a senior in high school) and also watches other hockey games when he can.
He hates Rask. Thinks he's a loser, a choker, and, his favorite pejorative, a bum. Blames him for every loss when he plays/played. Never liked him, never defended him, never gave him a chance after the Philly series, especially after Bunker Tim came along and played out of his mind for a couple years, stealing a Cup along the way from the best team in hockey that year. The fact that it was against the very best and they lost to the very best a couple years later with Rask in net was, seemingly, proof that Rask was never going to have the WILL to win that Timmy had.
I've another acquaintance that I long ago lost touch with on social media (we're still connected but don't interact) who was also a Bruins lifer. Same thought process on Rask.
For some, it was his inability to beat Montreal (whom many still see as a blood rival even though they've been a paper tiger in their best years since the last time they won a playoff series against Boston), for others it was giving up soft goals in close games that turned to losses, and for others it was failing to win the Cup as a starter, with his most vocal critics hanging the Game 7 loss to the Blues entirely on him, blatantly ignoring that his heroics in Game 6 allowed Game 7 to happen and that it was the other skaters in Black and Gold who no-showed Game 5, which put them on the brink.
But it isn't just bandwagon fans. It is longtime fans who never connected to him, maybe in part because he's so cool, calm, and collected most of the time. No flashy saves, no blue collar mentality, no willingness to be a vocal leader on the team. You can show these people all the stats in the world, all the records he holds, and even have personal testimony from everyone who has ever played with him, and they'd still shit on him because he never won a Cup as a starter (and, in their eyes, choked away both chances he had), never endeared himself to the local fans the way others (who had different personalities) did, and, most egregious of all, put his family above winning a Cup during a pandemic year JUST because it wound up being a false alarm of sorts.
Rask should be revered, but will never be because he had the audacity to fail the year before Thomas stepped in and helped them win a Cup, and committed the equal sin of not winning one after Thomas left town (funny how nobody talks about the last couple seasons HE had in Boston and how that ended), which is all his fault because everyone loves Marchand, Bergeron, etc. too much to hold them even slightly responsible (even though Marchand's brain farts directly led to TWO losses in the Blues series). See, they have fire, they CARE, and Tuukka never did.
Some of this can be heard on sports radio, but it's nothing compared to the echo chamber on social media. I'm willing to bet that if you polled 100 random Bruins fans about Rask, only 25% (or less) would admit that they always supported him. I'm willing to bet at least 35% will respond with, "Tuukka fucking sucks, kid! He's a chokah!" before taking a drag or sipping their shitty, cheap beer.
I can tell you, with certainty, that is the farthest thing from the truth. While it's a small sample size, I have several friends/acquaintances on social media who are Bruins lifers. One guy in particular, older than me by several years, basically schedules his life around Bruins games whenever he can (which isn't often since he works a blue collar job and is on his second marriage with two young children and one from the previous marriage who is like a senior in high school) and also watches other hockey games when he can.
He hates Rask. Thinks he's a loser, a choker, and, his favorite pejorative, a bum. Blames him for every loss when he plays/played. Never liked him, never defended him, never gave him a chance after the Philly series, especially after Bunker Tim came along and played out of his mind for a couple years, stealing a Cup along the way from the best team in hockey that year. The fact that it was against the very best and they lost to the very best a couple years later with Rask in net was, seemingly, proof that Rask was never going to have the WILL to win that Timmy had.
I've another acquaintance that I long ago lost touch with on social media (we're still connected but don't interact) who was also a Bruins lifer. Same thought process on Rask.
For some, it was his inability to beat Montreal (whom many still see as a blood rival even though they've been a paper tiger in their best years since the last time they won a playoff series against Boston), for others it was giving up soft goals in close games that turned to losses, and for others it was failing to win the Cup as a starter, with his most vocal critics hanging the Game 7 loss to the Blues entirely on him, blatantly ignoring that his heroics in Game 6 allowed Game 7 to happen and that it was the other skaters in Black and Gold who no-showed Game 5, which put them on the brink.
But it isn't just bandwagon fans. It is longtime fans who never connected to him, maybe in part because he's so cool, calm, and collected most of the time. No flashy saves, no blue collar mentality, no willingness to be a vocal leader on the team. You can show these people all the stats in the world, all the records he holds, and even have personal testimony from everyone who has ever played with him, and they'd still shit on him because he never won a Cup as a starter (and, in their eyes, choked away both chances he had), never endeared himself to the local fans the way others (who had different personalities) did, and, most egregious of all, put his family above winning a Cup during a pandemic year JUST because it wound up being a false alarm of sorts.
Rask should be revered, but will never be because he had the audacity to fail the year before Thomas stepped in and helped them win a Cup, and committed the equal sin of not winning one after Thomas left town (funny how nobody talks about the last couple seasons HE had in Boston and how that ended), which is all his fault because everyone loves Marchand, Bergeron, etc. too much to hold them even slightly responsible (even though Marchand's brain farts directly led to TWO losses in the Blues series). See, they have fire, they CARE, and Tuukka never did.
Some of this can be heard on sports radio, but it's nothing compared to the echo chamber on social media. I'm willing to bet that if you polled 100 random Bruins fans about Rask, only 25% (or less) would admit that they always supported him. I'm willing to bet at least 35% will respond with, "Tuukka fucking sucks, kid! He's a chokah!" before taking a drag or sipping their shitty, cheap beer.
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I see the same thing as MTG.
What's crazy to me is that these same people LOVE Pete Peters and Reggie Lemelin and Andy Moog. Sometimes it feels like a large portion of the fanbase in NE misses the time before Brady, when, outside of 86, none of the teams won anything. And yet now, anything less than perfection is ridiculed and derided. If Rask puts up the same exact career pre-2000, he's probably getting statues erected and schools across the region named after him.
I haven't lived back there since 1999, but I go to games when I get home every couple years, and I'll be honest, that's enough for me. Being in a crowd of 30K+ Red Sox fans these day, or 20K Bruins fans is just exhausting. Not everyone is a giant asswipe, but there's enough of them that I'm glad I've been on the outside looking in for this run of success because it probably helped me avoid turning into whatever kind of "fan" they are. You can see it in something as dumb as how people reacted when Brady didn't personally thank every NE fan by name in his retirement announcement, but it's been 11 years of that shit for Rask. He's a special person just for wanting to try a come back in that environment, because I sure as hell wouldn't have.
What's crazy to me is that these same people LOVE Pete Peters and Reggie Lemelin and Andy Moog. Sometimes it feels like a large portion of the fanbase in NE misses the time before Brady, when, outside of 86, none of the teams won anything. And yet now, anything less than perfection is ridiculed and derided. If Rask puts up the same exact career pre-2000, he's probably getting statues erected and schools across the region named after him.
I haven't lived back there since 1999, but I go to games when I get home every couple years, and I'll be honest, that's enough for me. Being in a crowd of 30K+ Red Sox fans these day, or 20K Bruins fans is just exhausting. Not everyone is a giant asswipe, but there's enough of them that I'm glad I've been on the outside looking in for this run of success because it probably helped me avoid turning into whatever kind of "fan" they are. You can see it in something as dumb as how people reacted when Brady didn't personally thank every NE fan by name in his retirement announcement, but it's been 11 years of that shit for Rask. He's a special person just for wanting to try a come back in that environment, because I sure as hell wouldn't have.
I think you guys are exactly right and it’s why the Boston sports culture is among the worst in America. It’s fueled by a negative media and disingenuous talk radio, but the culture in this city around sports is shockingly entitled. Rask is a career long victim of that bullshit.
Yes, but in a place defined by unprecedented sports success in two of the other four Big Four sports, failing to win the "big one" is no longer acceptable. The Celtics got a pass because they won a title before losing two years later and haven't been back since Ray Allen jumped ship. The Bruins don't but it's Tuukka who gets the brunt of the blame because he's playing behind "proven winners" and not turning into a literal brick wall in the SCF.
In time, when they don't win for another few years (not that I don't want them to, but I'm not sure how soon they will be legitimate contenders again), maybe the view on him will soften locally. Nationally, I think he is and was always seen as one of the best ever to put on a Boston uniform.
In time, when they don't win for another few years (not that I don't want them to, but I'm not sure how soon they will be legitimate contenders again), maybe the view on him will soften locally. Nationally, I think he is and was always seen as one of the best ever to put on a Boston uniform.
I'm at brunch and they just played Gloria and I wanted to throw my coffee mug at the stereo.
Rask deserved that win to shut up those mouth breathers.
Instead of stupidly blaming Rask for failed Cup runs, why don't they look at management that couldn't get the 2nd line solidified and overpaid role players therefore hamstringing the cap for years and years? Or our goal scorers completely disappearing for series at a time? The easy thing to do is blame the goalie.
My friend, who knows his hockey, was the exact same way about Rask. He hated him so much and was always begging them to bring back Thomas and trade Rask for “anything”. It’s a weird disorder.
As someone who hopped on the bandwagon back in '09, I think Thomas's performance in '11 warped expectations for Tuukka. He might deserve a little bit of heat for the end of Game 6 in '13, but he fucking carried a very mediocre squad to one game away from winning the Cup in '19. (And probably would have won it and been the easiest Conn Smythe vote in history if either the refs didn't comically overreact to Berube's histrionics or if Sweeney had acquired any kind of decent depth player instead of dressing the corpse of David Backes to take the ice.)
Also I think Thomas's Cup run deserves a critical reappraisal. He was fantastic for sure, but he also laid some eggs in the first two games of the Cup Final. And the team in front of him should receive a lot more credit. You had the Playoffest of Playoff Krejci, the tandem of Bergeron and Marchand emerging as a league-altering force, and perhaps the greatest lockdown defense pairing I've ever seen of in-his-prime Chara with a pre-injury Seidenberg. Yes, I think Thomas was a crucial factor in that team winning it all, but he was not the factor.
Meanwhile, Tuukka was a major reason why the Sweeney era hasn't been a complete catastrophe. When your sole source of scoring is your Hall of Fame top line and power play, your team will not go anywhere let alone be in contention without elite goaltending. Tuukka provided that. They're a fringe playoff team without him, as we're sadly seeing this year. And for the love of all that is good and holy I will slap any fool who thinks Tuukka "dipping out" of the '20 playoffs to tend to his sick daughter was him "quitting on the team."
It would be great if the fanbase instead took out their frustration on this management group that has failed to draft any impact players outside of McAvoy and continues to bloat the roster with overpaid mediocrities. Alas, Neely has earned sainthood status while Tuukka apparently didn't.
Thank you, Tuukka.
Also I think Thomas's Cup run deserves a critical reappraisal. He was fantastic for sure, but he also laid some eggs in the first two games of the Cup Final. And the team in front of him should receive a lot more credit. You had the Playoffest of Playoff Krejci, the tandem of Bergeron and Marchand emerging as a league-altering force, and perhaps the greatest lockdown defense pairing I've ever seen of in-his-prime Chara with a pre-injury Seidenberg. Yes, I think Thomas was a crucial factor in that team winning it all, but he was not the factor.
Meanwhile, Tuukka was a major reason why the Sweeney era hasn't been a complete catastrophe. When your sole source of scoring is your Hall of Fame top line and power play, your team will not go anywhere let alone be in contention without elite goaltending. Tuukka provided that. They're a fringe playoff team without him, as we're sadly seeing this year. And for the love of all that is good and holy I will slap any fool who thinks Tuukka "dipping out" of the '20 playoffs to tend to his sick daughter was him "quitting on the team."
It would be great if the fanbase instead took out their frustration on this management group that has failed to draft any impact players outside of McAvoy and continues to bloat the roster with overpaid mediocrities. Alas, Neely has earned sainthood status while Tuukka apparently didn't.
Thank you, Tuukka.
I’ll never understand why so many in RMPS feel such a visceral need to denigrate one of the best goalie seasons and playoff runs in Bruins history to “stick up” for Tuukka. It’s like you guys chose sides back in 2011 and never stopped with that battle. Everything is always presented through that prism, yet it’s definitely the broader universe of other Bruins fans that are stuck on it.
Like, where are the people that don’t give the 2011 team in front of Thomas enough credit, and can I go and count them? That team is fucking revered.
Like, where are the people that don’t give the 2011 team in front of Thomas enough credit, and can I go and count them? That team is fucking revered.
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The ones they lost 1-0 and 3-2? Maybe for the wraparound in OT in Game 2 if you want to be very ungenerous but were you expecting him to score in Game 1 or did you just forget that it was a 1-0 game?
Yeah weird games to cite. He was pretty average overall in the ECF (against a very elite offensive team). Gave up 5 goals 2x, 4 goals 2x (and they won one of these games). But also posted two shutouts including game 7. He was the primary reason I’ve seen a Bruins Stanley cup, and deserves all the praise for it.
I do think, though, that in that ECF the team picked him up when he needed it...on flipside if the Bruins offense has just one big offensive game against the blues in games 2, 4, or 5 Rask wins a cup and all the absurd chatter about him being a loser and Thomas being a winner stops.
*just so I’m clear - by “average,” I meant his overall numbers for the series. I remember having all the confidence in the world in him going into game 7 (and only crapped my pants a little bit that game)
Yea, this was more what I was thinking of. I also seem to recall he was somewhat shaky at times in the Montreal series, but as has been shown my memory isn't all that reliable. I went back and rewatched the 2011 SCF Game 1 and the reason why that one felt particularly bad was the timing (18 seconds left in regulation) and not how Thomas played it. I do think the wraparound game-winner in Game 2 was preventable, but I can see the argument that Thomas doesn't deserve blame there. Mea culpa.