One of the more underrated storylines from last season for the Boston Bruins was the struggles of backup goaltender Tuukka Rask. It's not like he was awful by any means but it seemed like every time he got a start, his teammates sleepwalked in front of him.
Unfortunately, Rask's (0-1-1) 2011-12 season got off to a similar note as he stopped 35 shots this afternoon and yet still lost 1-0 as the Colorado Avalanche (1-1-0) knocked off the lethargic Bruins (1-2-0) at TD Garden on Columbus Day.
Milan Hejduk scored the only goal, at 7:57 of the third period from Jan Hejda and Matt Duchene. It was a strange play as a linesman blocked B's defenseman Johnny Boychuk out of the play and then Hejduk's shot went off Zdeno Chara's leg. No doubt Rask would like that one back since he normally makes that save but still, can Boston please give him some goals?
It wasn't Patrick Roy in net for the Avs but Semyon Varlamov had 30 saves for the shutout. Colorado was 0 for 3 on the power play (including a brief 5 on 3 advantage) while Boston checked in at 0 for 2 on the power play.
You don't have to be a genius like Lightning head coach Guy Boucher to figure out why the Bruins lost two of their first three games at home; they only scored five goals and four of them were in one tilt.
Hitting the road will likely be a good thing for the B's chemistry plus they can finally put last season's Stanley Cup to bed. They have two challenging games away from home before they head back to Boston.
First up they play in Carolina on Wednesday, always a tough place to get two points before meeting the Blackhawks in Chitown on Saturday night in what should be a filthy game.
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