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At a deflated evening, they both questioned themselves about a golden opportunity they had missed for the Cup title. Rask, who conceded four goals on 20 shots, beat his counterpart Jordan Binnington (32 saves). He attended a spectacular round of the Stanley Cup Final that came to a sudden stop and was hard to swallow. He saw the Conn Smythe Trophy being awarded to him and attributed to St. Louis striker Ryan O'Reilly.
No one had more to lose or gain from an inherited point of view in the ultimate NHL game than the Rask. No one would have had the perception of their career more changed. This is unfair, of course. The Bruins would never have played in a seventh game without Rask's unparalleled playoff network. But sports are often not fair. They are a last-minute, last-minute crucible, which you have done for me recently. The blocker of the polarization washer will be penalized for Boston to spoil a golden opportunity to hoist the cup. His detractors are emboldened by the Stanley Cup size hole that remains in his hockey resume as the No.1 goalkeeper.
Parts 7 and legacies tend to be zero sum games. The nuance does not arouse much interest. It's binary, win or lose, credit or blame, whether it's justified or not. Rask deserved better, and he deserved better from his teammates, who spent most of the night in the suburb of Garden Ice and were not there to bail him out as he had done during the playoffs.
"I mean, for him to be as good as he was, that's why we're here," Marchand said. "He was amazing every night and gave us every chance to win. He is the best goaltender in the league. He showed that in the playoffs, he did a hellish job and he did his part. "
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy also put an end to Rask's criticism in one of the most disappointing defeats of the Boston Belle Epoque.
"There really should not be," he says. "We are a team. We scored a goal two minutes from the end, he could have stood on the head and give one, so. . . they exceeded us at certain moments of the game at all positions. He was excellent. He was our best player. I do not think anyone leaves the building tonight, unfortunately, in our locker room, saying he's doing his best. It's the whole group.
Rask finished a remarkable playoff run with a 15-9 record, a GAA of 2.02 and a .934 efficiency percentage, but he would trade all those numbers against the 35 pounds of money. known as the Stanley Cup.
Like the Vancouver Canucks, Rask remains a victim of Tim Thomas's historic talent during the 2011 Stanley Cup final. In the 2011 Stanley Cup final, he had doubled the pucks of another world. This performance has long clouded Rask's career. Thomas had an out-of-the-box experience, posting a 1.15 GAA against the Canucks, including whipping the Canucks in Match 7 in Vancouver. It was expected, without any requirement, that Rask repeat the inimitable to win another Cup for the Black and Gold.
A moment like this on the biggest stage of hockey was all that was missing from Rask's work. The Cup had escaped him in 2013 despite a remarkable performance during these qualifiers. But the painful and capricious end of the sixth game of this Cup final has stuck.
This time, Rask seemed immune to the vicissitudes of vulcanized rubber until the seventh game. It's not his fault, but it does not matter overnight. It's the life of a guardian.
Rask entered Match 7 as the best goalkeeper in the series (2.16 goals against average, with a .925 efficiency percentage). But his vocal critics will recall Rask's story in Game 7 of his career. He registered at 3-2 with a GAA of 3.18 and a .877 percentage in five previous games of Game 7, an unspectacular record in the pressure washer business.
Rask is 3-0 after being eliminated in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including the sixth game of the Cup final, stopping 82 of 86 shots and allowing just four goals during these three games (1.34 GAA, saving percentage of 0.953).
The beginning was not a good omen for Rask. He did not see a lot of rubber. When he did, he went in the net. The Blues scored on two of their first four shots and their back-to-back shots in the 3:13 first-period final. St. Louis only scored his third shot of the night. Jay Bouwmeester sent a shot that O'Reilly cleverly redirected to Rask to control the crowd and give the Blues a 1-0 lead at 16:47 of the first period.
The Blues doubled their lead on their next penalty shootout, breaker and head scorer, just 7.9 seconds from the end of the period.
Following a Bruins gift, Jaden Schwartz went up the ice and bypassed Marchand's defensive efforts, which performed a matador check at his own blue line and moved away from the ice. Schwartz hit the trailer Alex Pietrangelo, who skated and defeated Rask with a backhander. The whole sequence was scented for the Bruins, from the announcement to Marchand who misread before he put the ice on the goal that placed him 2-0 after a goal, although the Bruins dominated the Blues, 12- 4 in the first 20 minutes.
"It was obviously a nightmare for me," Rask said. "I hardly made a backup in the first. We tried to create and we had good chances. [Binnington] save when they need it. That's what you want to do when you're on the road. "
The dichotomy between the goalies' fortunes of the night was visible during the fateful sequence of the third period. Binnington, who had been more agitated than a basket with an unruly wheel and runner in the series, managed to flash her carpet to parry a first goal from Joakim Nordstrom with 11:03 to play. Barely 2:28 later, Brayden Schenn, left alone, beat Rask at 11:25 to score 3-0 and put the nail in the coffin of the Bruins. Rask was suspended to dry again when Zach Sanford scored.
"They were very opportunistic. There was not much there and they took advantage of every shot, "Rask said. "It seemed like their game plan was not about shooting the puck. They just wanted to drop it and wait for mistakes, which they did. "
Make no mistake, Rask deserved better. But he will have to wait for his hour and his cup.
You can contact Christopher L. Gasper at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.
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