Boston Bruins provide another lackluster effort with Tuukka Rask in net

Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask had a chance to regain his starting job but after Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Oilers, it doesn’t appear that will happen.

The Boston Bruins winning streak didn’t last as long as the Boston Celtics 16 game winning streak. Their streak ended on Sunday as they were beaten by the Edmonton Oilers 4-2.

Even in the loss, the Bruins had some highlights. David Pastrnak continued his scoring ways kicking off the scoring in the first period. On the powerplay Pasta got the puck from Torey Krug and unleashed a beautiful toe drag and roofed the puck past Cam Talbot. The goal is Pastrnak’s 12th of the season.

Tuukka Rask had some good saves in his first game back but also let up some cheap goals. The goal that tied the game in the first was a mixture of poor defense and goaltending. Torey Krug had a chance to get the puck out of the zone but Zack Kassian was able to keep the puck in the zone for the Oilers and Patrick Maroon ended up scoring on the play. It was a high, short side goal that showed once again that Rask needs to do a better job of protecting the net.

Another bright spot for the Bruins was David Krejci’s 3rd goal of the season. Riley Nash set up Krejci perfectly and the game was tied going into the third period.

The third period was all Oilers. Ryan Strome rifled one past Rask’s glove to give the Oilers the lead. The Bruins had some chances but were unable to capitalize. Leon Draisatl put all hopes away with an empty-net goal with 50 seconds left in the game.

What will Cassidy do?

The Bruins were outplayed and outhustled on Sunday. A common theme when Tuukka Rask is in net. Boston was “flat”, and Cassidy was not happy.

It’s hard to figure out the reason, but now Bruce Cassidy has to make an important decision. Does he try and get Rask going or go with Anton Khudobin the hot goaltender? Rask is now 3-8-2 on the season and didn’t show any significant improvement in his first appearance in five games. He once again let up a cheap goal on Sunday so I think the choice is clear.

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You go with Khudobin. He doesn’t have a loss in regulation and is playing out of his mind. We will see what decision is made when the Bruins play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.