It felt like the Boston Bruins were a team of destiny seven years ago this week when they dusted off the high-powered Pittsburgh Penguins in a four-game sweep of the Eastern Conference Final.
Zdeno Chara pushed around a pouting Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron dropped the gloves with Evgeni Malkin in a true superstar bout, Gregory Campbell had his iconic Stanley Cup playoff tough guy moment killing off a penalty with a broken leg, and Brad Marchand clowned Matt Cooke in one of the Penguins cheap shot artist’s last moments in Pittsburgh.
But that series, more than anything else, was about Tuukka Rask’s grandest show of dominance to this point in his NHL career. It was the only time that Boston’s No. 1 goaltender has been able to start, maintain, and then finish off a postseason mission from beginning-to-end without some significant disappointment mixed in with it all.
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Rask had the answers to every question Pittsburgh threw at him and was unquestionably in their collective heads throughout the four-game sweep. Rask stopped 134-of-136 shots in the series for an insane .985 save percentage, and truly plunged the dagger into Pittsburgh with a 53-save effort in a double-overtime win in Game 3 at TD Garden.
The Penguins had already been down 2-0 in the series after dropping both of their games on home ice, and they were in desperation mode to somehow steal Game 3 in Boston and seize some of Boston’s momentum. It didn’t happen thanks to Rask’s brilliant 95 minutes of play in the game, and Boston finished with the 2-1 before capping things off in Game 4 with an appropriate 26-save shutout for Boston’s hot goaltender.
Unfortunately for Rask and the Bruins, they ran into a dynastic Chicago Blackhawks team in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final. The final memories of that postseason are of Rask giving up a pair of goals within 17 seconds of each other late in Game 6 as the Bruins crumbled on home ice, and of both the goalie and his team not being able to finish off their incredible postseason run.
Rask still finished that postseason with a .940 save percentage and would have undoubtedly been in the Conn Smythe running had the Bruins somehow upset the Blackhawks in that Stanley Cup Final.
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The high/low postseason disparity continued with last spring’s inspiring run to the Stanley Cup Final for Rask and Co. The Finnish netminder posted a .934 save percentage while playing brilliantly all the way up until Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues on home ice. Yet again, he would have been the Conn Smythe winner had the Bruins pulled it out.
But instead, Rask fell flat in that winner-take-all showdown while giving up four goals on 20 shots for a sagging B’s team at the bitter end of a punishing seven-game series. For many, it felt like a variation on the same theme throughout his career when it comes to an inability to finish things off in the hockey postseason.
Rask’s most vocal supporters always point to the sweep of the Penguins in the conference finals as proof of his big-game ability in the most important moments. There’s no question Rask was the single most dominant force in that series and stunned everyone who thought it was going to be a long playoff battle between Eastern Conference powers.
Rask’s brilliance against the Penguins seven years ago this week can’t be denied. But it was also a sweep in which the Black and Gold exerted full control after the first game while the Penguins were on the run. It’s somewhat easier to be dominant and bullet-proof when things are working in your favor, or circumstances are favorable as they were for Boston in that very short playoff series.
Rask still has not been able to do what Tim Thomas did in 2011 and finish things off in the postseason with an exclamation point. Thomas pitched shutouts in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final AND Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final that spring while carrying the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup title in nearly 40 years.
Until Rask is able to match that feat, the epic performance vs. the Penguins with the .985 save percentage is going to be a mere glimpse of what the goalie is capable of rather than the full realization of elite potential when it comes to stopping the puck at the biggest moments.