I must confess, I was taken by surprise when pieces in support of Tuukka Rask’s Hockey Hall of Fame candidacy began popping up on my screen in the wake of the Bruins netminder’s recent retirement. Same for the suggestion that Boston should retire the Finn’s No. 40 and thus make him the first goaltender in franchise history to be so honored.
Number retirements are intensely local. But it seems odd that the franchise that has not retired Frankie Brimsek’s No. 1 or Gerry Cheevers’ No. 30 would bestow Rask with that singular decoration.
Don’t get me wrong. Rask was an elite goaltender for just about a decade. His 308 victories are the most in Bruins’ history. He has his name on the Stanley Cup as the backup to Tim Thomas, who didn’t play a minute in the 2011 tournament, then was in net for the 2013 loss in the finals to the Blackhawks and the 2019 upset loss in the finals to the Blues.
Is there even the semblance of a debate between Rask and Cheevers as to whom anyone would rather have had in net for a Game 7? Even Rask and Thomas? Does anyone think Rask is the greatest goaltender in franchise history?
The Hall of Fame discussion is an interesting one. Rask ranks 33rd in all-time victories with a sparkling .921 save percentage and 2.28 goals-against average, and has 52 shutouts. He won one Vezina Trophy and was named first-team All-Star once. He does have his name on the Cup, the same way that Tony Esposito has his name on the Cup for the 1969 Canadiens without playing a moment in the playoffs.
But is that a Hall of Fame résumé?
Of the 20 goaltenders who have been inducted into the Hall over the past 52 years, all but three have their names etched into the Stanley Cup, and one of those is Vladislav Tretiak. The other two are Eddie Giacomin and Chuck Rayner, both in as Rangers.
Rayner’s case is kind of curious. He finished with a 138-207-78 lifetime record, a 3.03 GAA and 25 shutouts while taking the Blueshirts to the playoffs twice, once to the final in 1950. Other than acknowledging that Original Six goaltenders seem to have been graded on a generous curve by the selection committee, I don’t quite get it.
I also don’t get the ongoing snub of Curtis Joseph, who is seventh on the all-time list with 454 victories (454-352-96), compiled a .906 save percentage and 2.79 GAA, while recording 51 shutouts and carried inferior Edmonton teams to consecutive first-round, seven-game upsets of the Stars in 1997 and the Avalanche in 1998.
If this speaks to the selection committee’s aversion to honoring goaltenders without a ring, then the group that meets in secret and is bound by written agreement never to explain its decisions, is going to face quite the challenge the next three years.
Because this year, Roberto Luongo will come up, in 2023 it will be Henrik Lundqvist and in 2024 it will be Pekka Rinne. The first two are slam-dunks. The third should be, with the Finn who played his entire career in Nashville tied for 19th (with Tom Barrasso) with 369 career victories while putting up a .917 save percentage and a 2.43 GAA with 60 shutouts.
Can’t say that I have seen all that much at all of the men’s hockey competition in Beijing, but I can say with certainty that the USA’s shootout loss to Slovakia in the quarterfinals is going to be a devastating one attached to David Quinn’s résumé in the coach’s hunt for a second NHL job.
The exposure women’s hockey received in this country, largely through the hype attached to the confrontations with Canada, did nothing but elevate the sport. It is unfortunate, though, that this was the year in which the Yanks just did not measure up to the powerhouse north of the border.
Unfortunate, too, that when every edge was needed, A) Team USA suffered a crushing loss when marquee center Brianna Decker suffered a tournament-ending broken fibula in its opening game against Finland; and, B) head coach Joel Johnson’s game-management decisions throughout the tournament were no less than baffling.
The regular season is not a worry, so Vegas is following the Tampa Bay-Chicago model in finagling with the cap by putting Mark Stone on long-term injured reserve in order to accommodate Jack Eichel’s addition to the roster, just the way the Lightning did last year with Nikita Kucherov and the Blackhawks did in 2015 with Patrick Kane.
The league has found no skullduggery with these courses of action designed to allow teams to bulk up beyond the cap for the playoffs, but it is interesting to note that the three teams that have pulled this maneuver are favored ownerships within the walls of the NHL’s Ninth Avenue headquarters.
I wonder if the view would be different if one of those outside the inner circle tried to pull it off. Maybe Jeff Vanderbeek, the Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk might have the answer.
Rangers-specific here, but it sure seemed strange that when Filip Chytil turned in arguably his most authoritative performance of the season Tuesday against the Bruins, he did not get a shift in the 5:00 overtime, then two nights later, when Alexis Lafreniere was close to his best against Detroit, he did not get on in the 5:00 OT.
Oh and by the way: Lafreniere got a shift on Tuesday while Chytil got one on Thursday.
Perhaps head coach Gerard Gallant was having a couple of Opposite Days.
Snapshot. Elite Eight: 1. Colorado, 2. Tampa Bay, 3. Florida, 4. Carolina, 5. Pittsburgh, 6. Toronto, 7. Calgary, 8. Minnesota.
Finally, TNT hiring Stephane Auger as an officiating expert would be like the NHL somehow hiring Stephen Walkom as an executive to oversee the league’s officiating department.
Oops.
