That was my initial thought, but then I watched it many more times and it's an amazing shot.

Montreal, huh?

I never saw that coming. I do wonder how they’ll fare against teams that play at pace with grit, like Tampa, Colorado or Vegas. Until then, if you’re a Hans fan enjoy.

Hahaha holy shit they did it again.

jesus, all bruce cassidy does is whine whine whine

Meh. It's been pretty bad.

Really surprised about this Vegas/Colorado series so far.

yea i stopped paying attention only to realize that Vegas is on the verge of taking it. WTF.

This is who I thought they were. Pacoretty makes a big difference for them.

For all his stats, the guy really knows how to come up short.

Enjoy the next phase Tuukka Rask.

It’s not Rask’s fault that the Bruins have no depth on D.

An already thin blue line loses Carlo and Miller, hard to come back from. Islanders fans chanting "We want Tampa," though, I dunno--good luck with that, I guess!

That's just it. There's always excuses for him.

Injuries on D.
Didn't like the bubble.
Marchand took a bad line change in game 7.
Bad angle, short-side shots get by goalies all the time.

Game 5 & 6 he looked as ordinary as he possibly could. Yes, the D was at it's thinnest, but isn't that when a goalie carries his team? His "pass" to Reilly sealed the game.

He'll probably be back. But I'm ready to move on.

I mean if you want to argue that Tuukka Rask is no longer an elite goalie (maybe never was?) I'll join you because I hate the Bruins and I think that's funny. But I also think this year's Bruins team could have a Vasilevskiy clone in net and they'd still be a 50/50 shot to make the finals with that blue line. I thought they'd get by NYI but I don't really see a Stanley Cup team there.

Tukka's good enough to win a cup with. The paper thin blue line was the issue. They tried addressing that by getting Riley but it's obvious now that a second D at the trade deadline was needed.

I put responsibility for the playoff exit on the front office. They never even tried to replace Krug with a capable player (until Riley) and they had their fingers crossed that Miller would defy medical reality and be able to play every game in the playoffs. I'm not sure Bruins number two D-man is a top four on any of the remaining teams.

That's false. Carlo & McAvoy are arguably top 2 anywhere. They banked on Charlie being elite this year, but he's got time yet.

Tuukka has benefitted from good teams. He's really good, but he's missing a key ingredient to be great. Their depth was fine provided 5 guys didn't go down. Carlo, Miller, Zboril, Moore, and Kampfer were all out. The first two being the most significant losses.

Correct only insofar as you can argue anything, even if you're wildly wrong! They're good defensemen, both of them, and maybe they make the top four of some of the remaining teams, but are they replacing the top pairing on Tampa, Colorado, Vegas? No, no, and no.



I think that's true. And yet the same could be said of someone like Holtby, who I think of as a very similarly good, not great, goaltender. So I think both you and snd are correct, to an extent. The Bruins blue line was decimated by injuries--Carlo is massive hole! And yet it's also a thinner back-end than they've had in previous years, so while it's impossible to predict those kinds of things, not going after a defensive upgrade (the way the Lightning grabbed Savard) might look like a mistake, in hindsight.

fair points both. I am fine with the Bs top pair being 4th best in the league and I also wished the Bs had circumvented the cap to go all in. I don't mention it because I'm sour, I say it wholeheartedly: I want the Bruins to spend beyond the cap however they need to in order to win a cup.

Oh, and the Holtby point is off. He has the ingredient that Rask does not: heart.

He carried the Caps on a few occasions during their run. Rask always folds up when he feels it's all on him.

well that was surprising. Fuck vegas though i hate the av's too.

Thought the Av's were too good.