Since Tim Thomas made the personal decision to erase his net presence in Boston this season, Tuukka Rask has finally been handed the reins.
His patience has paid off, his time to shine is upon the horizon, and I’m very confident that he will excel.
The Boston Bruins made a keen depth move by signing Elitserien Champion Niklas Svedberg to an entry-level contract last week. The deal came just days before Tim Thomas elected to take a year off from hockey, so while an American waved goodbye to the B’s, a Swede was already waving hello.
Boston has a legitimate cornucopia of goalies now; the organization has natives hailing from Finland, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Canada, USA (Zane Gothberg) and Norway (Lars Volden).
Fourteen nights later, I finally had a chance to dissect the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a much wider lens, and from a wider perspective. By doing so, I came to the conclusion that what Braden Holtby experienced over the last four weeks stemmed from a rare gift of opportunity, one given to (or earned by) maybe two percent of the entire pro goalie population over the last 10 years.
Yesterday afternoon, my latest piece for NHL.com discussed Roberto Luongo’s lack of confidence in Game 4. And now that Game 5 is just over an hour away, I figured I would add a few more philosophical thoughts about Luongo’s current situation and state of mind before the puck drops.
For Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, NHL.com asked me to write up a stream of consciousness in regards to what I think is already an instant-classic series between two elite goaltenders. Click here to read the piece, which includes many of my thoughts on the juxtaposing styles between Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo.